When you hear people talking politics, you may be at the Ohio Statehouse, or you could be at the barbershop. That is why the Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose started the Styling for Democracy program.
The focus is to put voter registration forms in barber and beauty shops around Ohio, to urge people to be active in politics instead of just talking about it. The program started with around 50 shops in 2020 in the mists of the pandemic and has grown to around 250 shops across the state, including Bug's Barbershop on North Main Street in Lima. LaRose says Ohio has led the nation in many ways in getting people to register to vote, and this is just another example.
"When Ohio votes, the whole nation is watching and we know that and we take that as a point of pride here in Ohio," said Frank LaRose, Ohio Secretary of State. "Ohioans are civically engaged, they know that a vote really does make a difference, every vote makes a difference, in fact, we end up having a few races that come down to a single vote. Now they're usually the smaller races like city council, township trustee, school board, but those are vitally important as well."Â
Besides getting people signed up to vote, LaRose says they are also looking for people to be poll workers.
"We need Republicans and Democrats, about 50-thousand people statewide to sign up to be an election official and they can do that either with the forms that we have or by going to the website voteohio.gov," added LaRose.
Http://voteohio.gov/Â is also the website where you can register to vote, or you can get a form at participating barber and beauty shops or the counties' board of elections. The deadline to register to vote in the November 8th election is October 11th.
