A transgender woman running for an Ohio House seat has been disqualified for failing to disclose her former name on petitions circulated to voters, in violation of a seldom-enforced state law.
Local election officials informed Vanessa Joy, who hoped to run as a Democrat for Ohio House District 50, that she was not eligible to do so, despite having collected the signatures necessary to run.
Joy sought to run in a firmly Republican district covering Stark County, just south of Akron.
To clarify:
It’s an old ass law that’s not enforced.
To the point where the petition she had to use didn’t have space for it, and the 33 page guide for candidates has no mention of it.
The other article I read on this said they couldn’t find anyone that knew about this or candidate that included a prior name.
It’s not like she just refuses to follow the rule, literally no one knew about it
That other article mentions her step father is a vical anti-lgbt Republican in Ohio, pretty safe bet he researched weird rules to keep someone from running.
Not just because he doesn’t want her to win, but because other Republicans will use it in the primary against him.
If it was a random person, they would have done it to other trans candidates as well.
That’s pretty messed up if there isn’t a valid way to disclose it on the official paperwork.
One of the legitimate reasons I can see for this law would be cases where someone changed their name to be similar, or the same, as someone else who is much more likely to win.
So if someone changed their name to Joe Biden recently, I would absolutely want it disclosed that they had done so.
Did Ted Cruz have to put his birth name (Rafael) on ballots?
America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.
How in the heck does this work for someone who had their name changed for any other reason? Heck, what about married people who took their partner’s last name?
Name changes by marriage are specifically exempted… because this kind of disclosure is totally unnecessary and serves no purpose.
As I noticed literally right above your comment:
If the reason for this law is to not have someone change their name to hide some negative past from voters, a marriage name change is still just as concealing. Sally Smith to Sally Michaels when there are thousands of Sally’s out there is just as much hiding as anything else.
All retroactively disqualified!! Ohio is an autonomous zone now with no leaders.
They claim in the article an exception for marriage name changes, which is nonsense. If the reason for this law is to not have someone change their name to hide some negative past from voters, a marriage name change is still just as concealing. Sally Smith to Sally Michaels when there are thousands of Sally’s out there is just as much hiding as anything else.
This is actually a really interesting point I hadn’t thought about, would people in witness protection or those who had to change their name to hide from dangerous people be disqualified?
Why would there be ANY exceptions? I wouldn’t have a problem with it as long as everyone had to follow the same rule. Putting exceptions just seems silly.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A transgender woman running for an Ohio House seat has been disqualified for failing to disclose her former name on petitions circulated to voters, in violation of a seldom-enforced state law.
Officials said Joy violated a little-known Ohio law requiring candidates for public office to list any name changes over the previous five years on their signature petitions.
Joy, who has legally changed her name and her birth certificate, told News 5 Cleveland and the Ohio Capital Journal on Wednesday she had not been aware of the law before being removed from the ballot.
Joy said that, as a transgender woman, she should not be required by law or expected to publicly disclose her deadname, which is the name she used before transitioning.
The law’s enforcement also comes at a pivotal time for transgender people in Ohio, as the state legislature gears up to override Gov.
The legislation would ban minors from obtaining gender-affirming health care and prevent transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
The original article contains 440 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
