Emily Komisarek visited the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles at 1600 Madison Ave. to get new tags for her vehicle before work Monday morning, only to be told it was closed.
Now, she has to find time to visit the BMV location on West Sylvania Avenue, Ms. Komisarek said said.
“I always come to this one because it’s just easy,” she said. “You can just pull right in, usually they’re not that busy, and it’s usually quick.
“I had no idea it was closed,” she added.
Ms. Komisarek visited the BMV just as the crowd of about 20 people gathered in front of the building was dispersing. Local leaders, community members, and elected officials gathered in front of the former location to highlight the challenges the closure of the office poses to downtown employees and residents, especially during a presidential election year.
“There are no known plans to restore service to the people living in this community, and given that we have an upcoming election, and the last day to register to vote is October 7, we stand here today to make sure that residents of downtown Toledo, North Toledo, and the north end of Central City, know that they must have a state-issued ID, a military-issued ID, or a passport when they go to cast their vote beginning October 8 to November 5,” state Rep. Elgin Rogers (D., Toledo) said at the news conference.
The downtown location closed in June. The Blade previously reported on the challenges local residents and businesses were facing. In that story, Linsey Bohrer, a spokesman for the Ohio BMV, said the deputy registrar at the location retired and the lease for the building was up. In Ohio, deputy registrars are privately owned, but in other states like Michigan, that’s not the case.
“The Ohio BMV solicited potential contractors to maintain a location at or near the existing location but did not receive interest,” Ms. Bohrer wrote in an email to The Blade earlier this month. The Blade reached out to Ms. Bohrer for this story, but she did not immediately respond.
Mr. Rogers said he does not think that license bureaus should be privately owned because it creates problems like the ones that residents in his district are experiencing.
In Ohio, deputy registrars can help citizens register to vote, issue driver’s licenses and state ID cards, create and maintain birth certificates and death records, inspect and register vehicles, and initialize and transfer motor vehicle transactions.
The BMV had signage informing the public of the closure at the beginning of May, but now, those who are impacted say this is just another example of voter suppression.
“We would like to share this message with the governor and the Department of Public Safety that we do not want any citizen in Ohio to be disenfranchised as a result of not having access to a BMV location near them,” Mr. Rogers said at the news conference. “We know the barriers that make it difficult to obtain an ID, which is now required by Ohio law to vote.”
To vote in Ohio, residents need a driver’s license or state ID card. Passports and military ID cards are also accepted. The Blade reached out to a spokesman for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, but he did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We really have seen voter suppression across the country, but in Ohio, we’ve seen pointed efforts by Secretary of State Frank LaRose to purge the voter rolls,” said Schuyler Beckwith, chairman of the Lucas County Democratic Party. “This feels like a part of that operation to suppress the vote in what is a historic election year.”
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said he feels the efforts weren’t pointed, they were intentional. He said the timing of the closure and the location suggests that it wasn’t just a coincidence.
“It’s not necessarily making it difficult for all voters to vote, but they’re making it difficult for some voters to vote,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said, referencing those who vote more to the left. “Voters that live in neighborhoods like this. Voters, who, frankly, tend to vote a certain way.”
“These partisan attacks should be dismissed on their face,” Dan Lusheck, a spokesman for Mr. LaRose, wrote in an email to The Blade. “Unlike in Michigan, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office does not control the BMV. Secretary LaRose is committed to making it both easy to vote and hard to cheat in Ohio and working to boost voter confidence in our elections a week out from the start of early voting would be a more productive use of time.”
Bernie Quilter, the Lucas County Clerk of Courts, owns the title office that shared the Madison Avenue property with the BMV, but because of the closure, he said his business has slowed significantly; so much so that he is looking to move his location near the West Sylvania Avenue BMV.
“As you can see, this is very important,” said Tony Totty, president of United Auto Workers Local 14. “It’s very impactful, and it’s detrimental to our community not to have access to these services, and because of this, we’re going to lose even more services, and that’s not right.”
Mr. Quilter has been in communication with the state to figure out how he can take over the services provided at the BMV. He asked the Department of Public Safety if he could take two employees from the BMV office and have them issue state IDs and driver’s licenses out of the title office. He said representatives from the department did not respond to that inquiry but offered to put a kiosk machine in his office, but the kiosk machine would not issue a driver’s license or state ID. Mr. Quilter said even if the title office does get a kiosk machine, he will likely move because licenses drive traffic.
“It’s the access that you have with personal service in this building that we’re losing,” Mr. Quilter said. “I warned the state at the time, when you shut this office down, you just shut down the whole inner city and the whole north end of Toledo.”
The other BMVs in the Toledo area include:
● 3606 W. Sylvania Ave. in Toledo
● 3018 Navarre Ave. in Oregon
● 4460 Heatherdowns Blvd. in Toledo
● 4900 North McCord Rd. in Sylvania
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