By Dawn Scotland
The Truth Reporter
Civic leaders, including state, city and UAW officials held a press conference Monday, September 30 to notify residents that the downtown Bureau of Motor Vehicles office at 1600 Madison Ave has been closed. The leaders expressed their concern and are pushing for the location to be re-opened. They explained that this will create an added barrier to obtain the identification that the state deems necessary to vote in the November election.
“Sadly, this BMV closed and that has stopped the service for the citizens here. This probably would not happen in Perrysburg or Sylvania and yet it happened here,” said Tony Totty, UAW Local 14 president. “We recently had someone come here for services and turned around because they discovered that this location was closed. This affects us on many different levels.”
Totty, along with Ohio State Representative Elgin Rodgers, Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, Lucas Democratic Party Chairperson Schuyler Beckwith and Lucas County Clerk of Courts Bernie Quilter, along with other concerned citizens, voiced their concerns regarding the closure which limits access to needed services to the residents of the central city.
“The downtown BWV has been closed since June with no known plans to restore services to the people living in this community,” State Representative Elgin Rogers.
“Given that we have an upcoming election and last day to register to vote is October 7. We stand here today to make sure the residents of downtown Toledo, north Toledo, the north end and central city know they must have a state issue ID, Miliary ID or Passport when they go to cast their vote beginning October 8 thru November 5.”
The group is addressing the Ohio governor, the Department of Public Safety and reaching out to residents of Lucas County to contact their representatives and ask them to re-open the BMV.
“This seems intentional, it’s an election year…” stated Mayor Kapszukiewicz, “The timing of the closure is obvious but so is the location… they’re not making it difficult for all voters to vote but some voters to vote, voters that live in neighborhoods like this and tend to vote a certain way. This is not an accident – this is intentional.”
Quilter, Lucas County Clerk of Courts, has held the title office at the 1600 Madsion building since the 1990s. His title office issues titles and takes passport applications. “I offered the state to put two of their [BMV] employees in my title office so that we can still issue state IDs and drivers licenses here. I haven’t heard from them. They offered to put a kiosk machine and are discussing that, but that kiosk machine will not issue a state ID or a driver’s license.”
“I warned the state at the time, if you shut this office down, you just shut down the whole inner city and the whole north end of Toledo. Now they have to go up to Sylvania and Monroe or to Oregon to get their state ID or Driver’s license. This is going to force me to close [my title] office,” Quilter stated.
The last day to register to vote is October 7. Early voting in Ohio begins October 8. To learn more about voting requirements visit lucascountyohiovotes.gov.
