A group of local organizations, including the NAACP of Portage County and the ACLU of Ohio , will discuss the Power of Sheriffs at noon Saturday.
The forum will be at Kent United Church of Christ, the same location where 150 people crowded into a room for an emergency meeting to discuss a now-deleted Facebook post from Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski. Several groups are sponsoring the event, including the NAACP , ACLU, Action Team, Advocates, Allies and Activists, and League of Women Voters of Kent .
Zuchowski , a Republican, has drawn national attention for a Facebook post that encouraged people to write down addresses of homes that have signs in support of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris so that a list can be kept of places to send illegal immigrants, whom he referred to as "locust." The sheriff has since removed the post from both his personal and campaign Facebook pages.
The gathering was announced Tuesday, the same day the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it will monitor voting in Portage County.
NAACP calls event an educational forum
Renee Romine, president of the NAACP of Portage County, said the meeting isn't a follow up to the previous emergency meeting, and said the group has previously partnered with the ACLU to host other educational forums, such as a Know Your Rights workshop last spring.
However, since the controversy arose, Romine said many asked about the role of the sheriff and how he can be held accountable. While that information is spelled out in the Ohio Revised Code, she said it isn't always clear.
Portage County commissioners released a statement after Zuchowski's post stating that the sheriff's comments didn't reflect the views of the commissioners, and that, as an elected official, Zuchowski does not fall under their under authority.
Romine said the meeting will be kept short and provide information about upcoming events, such as the Souls to the Polls effort. At the NAACP's emergency meeting, a group of NAACP members said they will meet at 1 p.m. Oct. 27 at the United Church of Jesus Christ in Ravenna and walk to the nearby Board of Elections to cast their ballots together during early voting hours.
Department of Justice monitoring Portage elections
The DOJ said it will monitor voting in the county to make sure federal laws are upheld. Zuchowski wasn't mentioned in the DOJ announcement, but it came weeks after residents filed complaints with federal and state authorities over the Facebook post.
The DOJ's announcement said its staff will monitor both early voting and ballots cast on Election Day in Portage County. Romine, meanwhile, said the NAACP's executive board met with DOJ representatives Tuesday evening.
Romine said the NAACP has met with three lawyers, two from the Washington, D.C., area, and a third from Cleveland. The lawyers, she said, were asking about Souls to the Polls. They were told that the NAACP typically offers rides to the Board of Elections that Sunday, rather than marching to the Board of Elections as a group, as is the plan this year.
They also asked the NAACP to notify them if they should become aware of any direct threats.
"They wanted to be sure everyone felt safe to cast their ballot," she said. "That's their job."
Romine said the DOJ lawyers didn't say exactly what prompted them to come to Portage County, but were "very aware" of news coverage regarding Zuchowski. They didn't offer specifics about how they'd conduct the monitoring, she said.
"They're going to be monitoring the early voting and go from there," Romine said.
“Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, employees with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division have regularly monitored elections on the ground in jurisdictions across the country to protect voter rights,” the DOJ release said.
Chief deputy: Controversy is 'politically motivated'
Ralph Spidalieri, chief deputy in the sheriff's office, said if people want to know the sheriff's role, they can check the Ohio Revised Code. Spidalieri, who said he was speaking on the sheriff's behalf, said the controversy was "being politically driven."
"He has every First Amendment right to post something on his personal Facebook page," he said, adding that no voter intimidation took place and "nobody has had any negative encounters."
Romine finds division 'disheartening'
Romine said she has talked to several friends who are afraid to put political signs in their yards, and that was the case even before the controversy over the sheriff's Facebook post arose. One friend, she said, told her she had a contractor coming to work on her home, and didn't want to put up a sign because she didn't know the contractor's politics. Another, she said, expressed fear that their home could be vandalized if they put a sign out.
"I have not experienced this in our society, where we have to worry about what would happen if people put signs out," she said. "That's what's so disheartening."
Akron Beacon Journal staff writers Amanda Garrett and Alisson Toro-Lagos contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: NAACP, ACLU plan Portage talk to discuss sheriff's role
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