A new ad from Republican candidates for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy accuses Democratic candidate Amy Acton of canceling the March 2020 primary election. But a trip back to that time shows that‘s misleading.
"Nobody ever cast a vote for Amy Acton, but she stopped yours," the ad launched April 11 says. It claims she “called off Ohio’s election at the last minute”. However, Republican state leaders, including some on the ballot now, had as much or more of a hand in that decision.
In the early days of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, little was known about the virus. Hospitals were full of people who were sick and sometimes dying as a result of it. Acton, then the Ohio Department of Health Director, had signed various health orders to prevent the spread of the virus, including prohibiting mass gatherings and closing K-12 schools.
The 2020 primary election, which included the contest for the Democratic nomination for president, was scheduled for St. Patrick’s Day. And as Republican Gov. Mike DeWine explained the day before, there were concerns about the possible spread of the virus in close spaces and poll workers’ health and safety.
“These are people who are going to be there 13 hours or more. These are people who are going to be in contact with a lot of people that day,” DeWine said in a press conference on March 16, 2020. “Many of these poll workers are older and again, when we think about putting them together with so many people, it is frankly not fair to them.”
DeWine said that as the health director and serving in the governor’s cabinet, Acton signed the order to cancel in-person voting on the day before the primary. But DeWine said he decided to close the polls after meeting with Acton and fellow GOP leaders, including former Lt. Gov and now U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and Jane Timken and David Pepper, then the chairs of the Ohio Republican and Democratic parties. DeWine said all agreed after considering the concerns they had heard from voters who were afraid to go to the polls in the early days of the pandemic.
“We should not face them to make this choice—a choice between their health and their constitutional rights and duties," DeWine said.
During that 2020 press conference, Husted, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate last year and is running to keep that seat, said he supported the decision.
“I talked to people who had voted every election in their lives and were going to skip tomorrow out of their health concerns,” Husted said on March 16, 2020. “These are the very real choices that people were going to have to make. And ultimately, it is not fair to force them to have to pick their health or their constitutional rights.”
LaRose, who is now running for state auditor, also agreed: “Obviously we cannot stand here and tell people over 65 that they should stay at home and, at the same time, tell Ohioans that they should come out to vote.”
LaRose issued a directive that suspended in person voting and continued mail-in voting until June 2. He wrote in the directive that it was issued "in response to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s and Ohio Director of Health Dr. Amy Acton’s order closing polling places on March 17, 2020. Their difficult but necessary decision will protect the health and well-being of Ohioans."
A few days later, state lawmakers changed that deadline to April 28 with House Bill 197. House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima), who was then in the Senate, spoke for the bill on the floor on March 25, 2020.
"The election of March 17 was not canceled. So that is inaccurate to say that," said Huffman. "The governor, secretary of state, the health director, did not cancel the election of March 17. What happened was the director of health decided to close the polling places on March 17. And as a result of that, a lot of people didn't get to vote who expected to vote. So this legislation says we are going to extend voting for the March 17 election.
Huffman continued: "All of the timelines, everything else relating to March 17 stay in place or merely allowing additional voting for the March 17 election. And we're going to do that by mail only."
Acton resigned as health director in June 2020. Last year in an interview for "The State of Ohio", she said she resigned "ultimately, because I wouldn't sign orders, orders that were coming from the speaker of the House at the time, Larry Householder."
DeWine has endorsed Ramaswamy. Republicans have attacked Acton for the health orders she signed and statements she made in the beginning of the pandemic, referring to her on social media as "Dr. Lockdown". But DeWine has said several times recently that closing the polls in March 2020 was his decision, not hers, as the Ramaswamy ad leads the viewer to believe.
“Amy Acton, I thought, did a good job as director. I am the one who appointed her," DeWine said on April 13. "The fact is, she worked for me as all of the members of the cabinet do, and decisions that were made were made by the governor. If there’s a member of the cabinet who issues an order, that was at my direction."
