Editor

REPORT: A Justice Agenda – Ohio’s Missing Voters Part 2

January 24, 2024 by Editor

By Terra Goodnight, Director of Research and Lily Furgeson, Communications and Research Associate

Innovation Ohio Education Fund (IOEF) announces the release of a part two sequel to the Ohio’s Missing Voters report. In the previous report, Innovation Ohio Education Fund announced that Ohio is home to 2M eligible to vote residents that are not registered and 700k inactive voters that are in danger of being purged. Recognizing that Ohio’s electorate is not as representative of its people as it could be.

In this report, our objective was to gain deeper insights into whether Ohio’s laws are worsening Ohio’s Missing Voters’ problem and how other states and their laws may offer a solution. Ohio has always played a pivotal role in shaping the nation’s political direction, and it is our responsibility to ensure that every eligible citizen’s voice is heard in our democratic process. We compared voter turnout and voting policies in midwestern battleground states: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. Looking at the last three federal General Elections, we found that Ohio consistently ranks at the bottom in voter turnout and provides the least voter-friendly policies.

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REPORT: A Justice Agenda – Ohio’s Missing Voters

October 9, 2023 by Editor

By Terra Goodnight, Director of Research and Lily Furgeson, Communications and Research Associate

Innovation Ohio Education Fund (IOEF) is thrilled to present another installment to our 2023 project, A Justice Agenda: “Ohio’s Missing Voters”. For this report, IOEF undertook a comprehensive analysis of publicly-maintained and commercial voter lists within the Ohio voter file. Our objective was to gain deeper insights into the population of unregistered and inactive voters across our great state. Leveraging data sources from Catalist, the US Census, and the Ohio Secretary of State, this report seeks to estimate both the size and characteristics of significant groups. Our focus, as outlined in this report, will be on the geographical distribution of these voters, their demographic composition, and provide potential recommendations. This report was made possible by the dedicated staff at the Innovation Ohio Education Fund.

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REPORT: A Justice Agenda for Black Women and Girls

August 28, 2023 by Editor

Innovation Ohio Education Fund is pleased to announce A Justice Agenda for Black Women and Girls.

This report focuses on ways in which currently pending or passed state-level policy harms or holds back the lives of Black women and girls. We examine ways in which housing, workforce, and education policies create barriers for Black women and girls face in their lives and in seeking justice. We will then offer policy solutions for state-level policy makers to implement in order to close the gap on discriminatory policies and practices.

JusticeAgenda-Report-FNL-2 Download

Reproductive Access and Women’s Economic Security: A Policy Prescription

December 18, 2017 by Editor

Last week, the Ohio legislature enacted another restriction on legal abortion by passing HB214, the Down syndrome abortion ban, into law. If signed by Governor Kasich, it will be the 20th restriction to abortion and reproductive health care enacted into law since 2011.

Our latest analysis looks at the relationship between public policies like these and their impact on women’s economic security. We find that without support for women’s reproductive choices – access to contraception and abortion services and workplace policies that support pregnant women and working moms – women will never achieve full equality and the economic security for their families that comes with it.

Highlights from our research:

More than half of teens who become pregnant fail to earn a high school diploma by age 22
Women with early access to contraception earn more later in life than their peers.
Women who are denied an abortion are three times more likely to end up living in poverty.
Only 15 percent of the civilian workforce receives any form of paid family leave benefits.

View the report: Reproductive Access and Women’s Economic Security – A Policy Prescription for Ohio

How the State of Ohio Can Reduce Food Insecurity

November 22, 2016 by Editor

Among poverty measurables, Ohio scores especially poorly on rates of food insecurity. Of all tools the state of Ohio has to combat food insecurity, nutrition education programs are the most effective options available to reduce food insecurity in the state. If the state of Ohio invested $16 million in its Ohio State Extension nutrition education programs, the state could lift a projected 24,000 Ohioans out of food insecurity.

See our full report here.