Speaker 1: By Billy Cunningham, the great American. Of course, this is
Speaker 1: election today, election afternoon. Yours truly intends on voting about
Speaker 1: three to four clock. Not much on the ballot, but
Speaker 1: I will do my constitutional duty to vote, joining you
Speaker 1: and I alyist and man in charge of elections in
Speaker 1: the state of Ohio, Frank LaRose, the second cousin of
Speaker 1: Buddy L. Rosa. Franklrosa, Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 1: And as we sit here early on Tuesday afternoon, any problems,
Speaker 1: any difficulties, how are we looking?
Speaker 2: But it's an important election. Not everybody necessarily is paying
Speaker 2: attention to that, but these are votes that can have
Speaker 2: a big impact on your community, quality of life and
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And so you should get out
Speaker 2: and make your voice heard. You're not going to impact
Speaker 2: any lines or that kind of thing. You'll get a
Speaker 2: sticker on your way out the door. Here's another thing, Willie.
Speaker 2: I run into people that say I'm not going to
Speaker 2: vote in this local election because I don't know enough
Speaker 2: I don't want to guess, right, Okay, that's not a
Speaker 2: good excuse. You go to our website vote Ohio dot gov.
Speaker 2: You can cheat on the test, you can look at
Speaker 2: exactly what's going to be on your ballot. This is
Speaker 2: what Lauren and I did last night. We put the
Speaker 2: kids to bed. I printed off what's called the sample ballot,
Speaker 2: where we saw exactly what's going to be on our ballot.
Speaker 2: And we sat there as a couple and we talked
Speaker 2: about our choices, and now we're ready to go and
Speaker 2: well informed and we know what we're doing.
Speaker 1: That makes no sense at all, because I often say
Speaker 1: that if you wake up on Tuesday this morning, and
Speaker 1: you say, is the election this Tuesday or next Tuesday?
Speaker 1: Or has the election already taken place? In other words,
Speaker 1: shall I use the term ill informed? And I know
Speaker 1: the media says you got to vote, you got No,
Speaker 1: you don't have to vote if you don't know what
Speaker 1: you're voting for, if you don't know what the issues are,
Speaker 1: if you don't know the pros and cons of each issue.
Speaker 1: Don't waste your time and cancel the ballot of someone
Speaker 1: who's informed. Do you agree or not?
Speaker 2: I think if you do a little bit of research,
Speaker 2: you can cast an informed vote. And give you an example,
Speaker 2: I didn't know which can candidates for city council where
Speaker 2: the Conservatives who share my values, because I didn't follow
Speaker 2: that all that closely, but I did a little bit
Speaker 2: of research. I saw which ones were endorsed by the
Speaker 2: County Republican Party, which ones had taken stances that align
Speaker 2: with the things I care about, And now I'm an
Speaker 2: informed voter. And so you know, I think that with
Speaker 2: a few minutes of effort, a little bit of googling,
Speaker 2: a little bit of checking their own website or what
Speaker 2: the newspaper's candidate guide says, or whatever else, you can
Speaker 2: be an informed voter. And it's worth doing because these
Speaker 2: elections come down to a small margin. In many cases,
Speaker 2: local elections can often come down to just a handful
Speaker 2: of votes. Heck, we have tie votes every year somewhere
Speaker 2: in the state that have to be determined by a
Speaker 2: coin flip. Don't be that person that wakes up on
Speaker 2: Wednesday morning and realizes that a Bolshevik has just been
Speaker 2: elected to your school board because you didn't bother to
Speaker 2: go vote and it was determined by a single vote.
Speaker 1: That's that's critical. I don't care how busy you are.
Speaker 1: You can go online today's world, you can do it.
Speaker 1: Twenty years ago, you couldn't do it if you look
Speaker 1: up twenty years ago and said, who's running? I don't know.
Speaker 1: How do you find? Well, I don't know. But today
Speaker 1: the Encyclopedia Britannica, all the information in the world is
Speaker 1: on my right home. I left it in my hand.
Speaker 1: And if you don't take it ten minutes to find
Speaker 1: out who I'm voting for, we get the government we deserve.
Speaker 1: And that worries me too.
Speaker 2: Man. Well, consider this. It's a kind of a tale
Speaker 2: of two different years. If you look at the even
Speaker 2: number years twenty twenty, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: it's been absolutely record breaking turnout. So this nonsense where
Speaker 2: the liberals say, I want to suppress the vote. If
Speaker 2: that's my objective, I'm really bad at it. We don't
Speaker 2: want to suppress anything. We've had massive turnouts in those
Speaker 2: even number years. But then you go one year later
Speaker 2: to a year like twenty twenty five and it may
Speaker 2: be single digits or low double digits. That's a shame
Speaker 2: because it matters who lives in the White House. We
Speaker 2: all know that. But what probably matters just as much,
Speaker 2: maybe more, who works at the courthouse or the schoolhouse
Speaker 2: or city hall. When it comes to your quality of life,
Speaker 2: the safety of your community. Heck, the schools that our
Speaker 2: children are being educated in. This year is the year
Speaker 2: we make those decisions, and you've got to make your
Speaker 2: voice heard.
Speaker 1: Frank LeRose, you're making sense. I live in a community
Speaker 1: that's safe and sound with good schools. However, we have
Speaker 1: a race for the Sycamore Township trustees. We have a
Speaker 1: school board race inding Hill school boards. There's one or
Speaker 1: two school issues. I want to pump up as much
Speaker 1: as I can in Deer Park Community schools for what
Speaker 1: they've done. And so all politics is local. It may
Speaker 1: be great if things are good or bad in New
Speaker 1: York City, but damn it. I live in Sycamore Township.
Speaker 1: I live in Kenwood, and I want my community where
Speaker 1: I live to be the best. And the off year
Speaker 1: elections is when we decide those things. Correct.
Speaker 2: Every single election here, I give you a prediction. I
Speaker 2: can tell you who's going to win today. In any race,
Speaker 2: it's the candidate who gets more of their supporters to
Speaker 2: go out to the polls Barnett. It's always going to
Speaker 2: be that way. And so whether you live in a
Speaker 2: city that Leans Republican or Leans Democrat, there's no such
Speaker 2: thing as a long shot race in a local election,
Speaker 2: if people just bother to show up.
Speaker 1: What percent, Frank Lerosa, you're in charge of elections about,
Speaker 1: give me your crystal ball prediction in the state of
Speaker 1: Ohio overall? What percent of Ohio? When's you going to
Speaker 1: vote today? If anyone you know.
Speaker 2: Here's why it's really hard to tell, because it's so localized.
Speaker 2: You may have one community where there's a really hot
Speaker 2: race for mayor, or people are all hyped up about
Speaker 2: the school board race or the levy or whatever else,
Speaker 2: and you may have massive turnout. The next town over
Speaker 2: it may be a complete sleeper and people aren't really
Speaker 2: all that engaged. So it's hard to tell. I can
Speaker 2: tell you what we've seen already for early voting, about
Speaker 2: four hundred thousand. In fact, the number is three hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety nine nine and eighteen. That's how many people
Speaker 2: participated in early voting. We know that right there in
Speaker 2: Hamilton County we've had a decent turnout through early voting
Speaker 2: as well. It was the number of early voting ballots
Speaker 2: count counted nineteen two hundred and twenty nine. That's how
Speaker 2: many people voted early in Hamilton County. But we also
Speaker 2: know there's a lot of outstanding absentee ballots. What does
Speaker 2: that mean about fifty thousand people throughout the state that
Speaker 2: have requested their absente ballot and haven't returned it yet.
Speaker 2: And so if you're that guy that has your absentee
Speaker 2: ballots sitting on your kitchen table or sitting on the
Speaker 2: dashboard of your car, it's too late to mail it.
Speaker 2: You can't take it to your voting location at this point.
Speaker 2: You got to get it down to your county Board
Speaker 2: of Elections by seven thirty ten, and it's worth it.
Speaker 2: Take a drive down to your county Board of Elections
Speaker 2: and submit that ballot so that again you can make
Speaker 2: sure your voice is heard.
Speaker 1: Frank LeRose your deal with a facts ideal with hyperbole.
Speaker 1: Let's say there's twelve million people who live in the
Speaker 1: state of Ohio. It is not approximately correct, approximately approximately.
Speaker 1: I want to hold you do this. How many adults
Speaker 1: eighteen and over eleve in the state of Ohio? Is
Speaker 1: it nine million? Three million kids in school?
Speaker 2: Well near eight point eight point something. Because I know
Speaker 2: the eligible population of voters in Ohio, we're already at
Speaker 2: like ninety three ninety four percent of them that are
Speaker 2: registered to vote, and we have seven point eight million
Speaker 2: registered voters, so the total number of eligible adults over
Speaker 2: eighteen who are US citizens has to be in the
Speaker 2: low eighth.
Speaker 1: So let's say there's eight million people that could vote,
Speaker 1: and of that number, about seven point five million or register,
Speaker 1: which is fantastic. And then as far as the turnout,
Speaker 1: I talk about Hamilton County or the city of Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: we got major problems. You may know this if down
Speaker 1: the road you become a senator or a congressman, or
Speaker 1: a governor or the president, you're gonna have to deal
Speaker 1: with the city of Cincinnati, which is a complete meltdown.
Speaker 1: And I'm told by Sherry Polland at the Board of
Speaker 1: Elections that the turnout this year may be as high
Speaker 1: as twenty five percent, And so that means that thirteen
Speaker 1: percent of the registered voters are going to decide the
Speaker 1: outcome of this election. That means eighty seven percent or not.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that?
Speaker 2: I think that it's problematic. And again, I think part
Speaker 2: of this is that if you flip on your TV
Speaker 2: or you go to your favorite social media account, you're
Speaker 2: going to see all kinds of chatter about every single
Speaker 2: damn thing that happens in Washington, DC. We seem to
Speaker 2: be focused on federal issues. I get why they're impactful,
Speaker 2: and people lose track of how important local offices are.
Speaker 2: Local government is. And again look at our beloved Queen City.
Speaker 2: And again I think you know this. I know and
Speaker 2: love Cincinnati very well. My dad went to UC. I've
Speaker 2: spent a lot of time down there. I was just
Speaker 2: down there knocking on doors for Corey Bowman last weekend
Speaker 2: because I think he's the right man for the job.
Speaker 2: Who's finally going to turn this great American city around
Speaker 2: and let it be what it was always meant to be,
Speaker 2: and that is a thriving place where families can live
Speaker 2: and work and raise a family. It's not that right now,
Speaker 2: but you know, we need more people to actually get
Speaker 2: out and make their voices heard. There are more Republicans
Speaker 2: in Hamilton County than almost any other county in the state.
Speaker 2: The problem is they're outnumbered. If they actually bother to
Speaker 2: go up and vote today, they could flip the Natty.
Speaker 2: It's a very real possibility that we could put a
Speaker 2: Republican in office in the mayor's office in the city
Speaker 2: of Cincinnati. What a tremendous thing that would be.
Speaker 1: Now, secondly, we have a situation. You were on the
Speaker 1: reapportionment board. You were one of the seven to carve
Speaker 1: up the districts. Can you put a period on the
Speaker 1: sentence goes to Democrats? And the Republicans agreed to carve
Speaker 1: up the congressional districts. Number one of my correct and
Speaker 1: number two. What was the goal?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there was a unanimous and bipartisan vote on
Speaker 2: this in the Redistricting Commission. And I think that when
Speaker 2: you have a vote like that, both sides are going
Speaker 2: to have something they like something they don't like about it.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody loves the process or the way
Speaker 2: that the process plays out, but it was at least
Speaker 2: a result of consensus building and compromising that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Here's the bottom line. My goal was to go in
Speaker 2: there and make sure that first of all, we complied
Speaker 2: with the Constitution. We did that. Second of all, that
Speaker 2: we create districts that relatively mirror the political leanings of
Speaker 2: the state of Ohio. And again I believe that we
Speaker 2: did that. And then third, putting on my hat as
Speaker 2: a Republican, I want to make sure that I'm not
Speaker 2: putting my party in a disadvantage or candidly want to
Speaker 2: put my party in an advantageous position on this, and
Speaker 2: so let's be candid about this. What we ended up
Speaker 2: with was a map that creates twelve Republican districts and
Speaker 2: three Democratic districts. Twelve Republican districts and three Democratic districts.
Speaker 2: The current state in Ohio is ten Republican districts and
Speaker 2: five Democratic districts. And the challenge that we faced was
Speaker 2: that if the legislature had drawn different maps, maybe that
Speaker 2: created thirteen Republican districts instead of twelve, it would have
Speaker 2: certainly been subject to a referendum. The Ohio Constitution is
Speaker 2: very clear that the moment the leftist dark money groups
Speaker 2: gathered two hundred signatures, it would freeze the implementation of
Speaker 2: the current maps. It would require us to run the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty sixth election on the old maps back to
Speaker 2: ten to five, and most likely trigger us having to
Speaker 2: run in August special election for congressional primaries. All kinds
Speaker 2: of chaos, all kinds of bad things, something that was
Speaker 2: to be avoided.
Speaker 1: And I look at Greg Lansman's district that appears to
Speaker 1: be like a plus six Republican. But I look at
Speaker 1: some of the recent voting in that district that's very close.
Speaker 1: Whoever you Republicans pick for that district to run against
Speaker 1: Greg Lansman going to have to be pretty damn good.
Speaker 1: He's a good politician, and it's going to be a
Speaker 1: close race, et cetera. I would add one other thing.
Speaker 2: Man, candidates matter, Party chairs matter. State center is a
Speaker 2: great woman named Diane Cunningham that's on our state Central Committee.
Speaker 2: That'll be involved in that conversation, by the way, But
Speaker 2: finding the right candidate matters, and the party's job is
Speaker 2: to find the right candidate, and that's something has to
Speaker 2: happen over the next couple months.
Speaker 1: You know the media complaining about this. Oh I ask
Speaker 1: you the question, you may know the answer. There's about
Speaker 1: six New England states, that being, if my geography is correct,
Speaker 1: you got Maine, you got Vermont, you have New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: you have Massachusetts, you have Connecticut, you got Rhode Island.
Speaker 1: And in those states they're a little bit smaller than
Speaker 1: the state of California population wise, those six states how many.
Speaker 1: And those six states voted forty percent for Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: So you would think about forty percent of the congressional
Speaker 1: districts would be Republican. How many Republican congressmen or congresswomen
Speaker 1: are there in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Speaker 1: Rhode Island. Can you, Franklerosa, can you give me a
Speaker 1: round number? How many?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The round number is zero. And it's because of
Speaker 2: Democratic jerryman And by the way, when the Democrats do it,
Speaker 2: it doesn't get called out. When the Republicans do it,
Speaker 2: every reporter, every leftist journalist in the state, in the
Speaker 2: country wants to talk about. Here's the other thing that happens.
Speaker 2: Willy city council wards get redistricted by Democratic city councils
Speaker 2: in counties that have a county council form of government,
Speaker 2: like where I grew up in Summit County, in Cuyahoga County,
Speaker 2: they redraw the county council districts. They jerrymander the heck
Speaker 2: out of that to create a situation where it's darn
Speaker 2: near impossible for a Republican to get elected to city council.
Speaker 2: No problem to the county council, and nobody ever says
Speaker 2: a word of it. No problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Illinois seventeen districts, fifteen Democrats, two Republicans, and that's
Speaker 1: okay with the media, no problem. We go from there.
Speaker 1: But today's going to be a day become informed, then
Speaker 1: go vote. Any difficulties at polling places, I know New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I was on a station this morning, wond and New
Speaker 1: Jersey and they were having they were having bomb threats
Speaker 1: called in and which is stupid. Is there any problem
Speaker 1: with voting in the state of Ohio at this point?
Speaker 2: Nothing systemic. We've had the small things here and there,
Speaker 2: a power outage or you know that kind of thing,
Speaker 2: but nothing systemic or widespread. Of course, our operations team
Speaker 2: is ready to jump on it if there is. And
Speaker 2: by the way, if you see anything that's not right
Speaker 2: at your polling location, the first thing you should do
Speaker 2: is talk to that voting location manager. They are there
Speaker 2: to do that job and they'll correct it under most scenarios.
Speaker 2: But we've also got a report line. You can text
Speaker 2: the word report to three four two six two three
Speaker 2: four two sixty two. You text report and then we'll
Speaker 2: be on top of it from the Ohio Secretary State's Office.
Speaker 2: You can also message us on our website.
Speaker 1: Lastly, give the website of ill informed voters want to
Speaker 1: become more informed and not be a member of the
Speaker 1: borg simply a bust to a pole to vote with
Speaker 1: a whe a blue or a red ballot. Can you
Speaker 1: tell me again the website that we need to go
Speaker 1: to to become a little bit more informed?
Speaker 2: Vote Ohio dot gov. That's your place for the right
Speaker 2: kind of ID. What to bring you know for your ID,
Speaker 2: what polling location to go to, what's going to be
Speaker 2: on your ballot? Really anything you need to be an
Speaker 2: informed voter anywhere in the state of Ohio. Vote Ohio.
Speaker 2: Go all right?
Speaker 1: Frank learose three four seven tastes so good, you got
Speaker 1: to get it bad once again. Thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the Bill Cunningham Show. You can Jerry Manner for political reasons.
Speaker 1: You cannot Jerry Manner for racial reasons. And the reason
Speaker 1: many of the Democrats are enraged. I want to use
Speaker 1: African American people and voters as an excuse to throw
Speaker 1: out the ballots when they do exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: But Jared mannering for political reasons is good according to
Speaker 1: US Supreme Court, Jared Manning for racial reasons is bad,
Speaker 1: which did not happen in Ohio jerry mandered so to
Speaker 1: speak for shall I say political reasons and not racial reasons.
Speaker 1: Frank LaRose, you're a great American. Thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thanks Willy, get out and vote.
Speaker 1: God bless America. Thank you, Frank. Let's continue with more
Speaker 1: the line becomes available five one to three, seven four nine,
Speaker 1: seven thousand. I'll say once again that if you're what
Speaker 1: is it about twelve twenty two in the afternoon on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: if you're ill informed, you won't take ten to go
Speaker 1: online in order to find out what the issues are.
Speaker 1: If you have no clue who's running and don't know
Speaker 1: what they stand for, and you're politically a dumb ass,
Speaker 1: don't vote because you canceled the ballot of someone who
Speaker 1: took the time to become informed. The only way a
Speaker 1: democratic republic works is to have informed voters willing to
Speaker 1: make changes when things are going the wrong direction. And
Speaker 1: if you simply are given a ballot slapped in your
Speaker 1: hand vote for these candidates, then you're stupid and don't vote.
Speaker 1: And bright people can be stupid about any issue. Hell,
Speaker 1: I'm stupid about a bunch of stuff. I'm not stupid
Speaker 1: about politics. Other issues, I'm very stupid. So if you're
Speaker 1: ill informed and you're a dumbass on politics, don't vote.
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred W