No on Issue 1 protects democracy, majority rule
Letter to the Editor,
In the Aug. 8 special election, Ohio’s Republican leaders want voters to go to the polls and give up a citizen right they have exercised since 1912 and then pay the $20,000,000 this unnecessary election will cost. If it sounds preposterous, that’s because it is. Issue 1, the constitutional amendment proposed by Republican legislators, is the only thing on the ballot and will change the rules for passing any future amendment in a statewide election from a 50+1 to 60+1 percent threshold.
So what is behind this Republican frenzy in calling for an expensive election in August when turnout is historically low? Issue 1 is a preemptive attack on the reproductive rights citizen-proposed constitutional amendment that is likely to appear on the November ballot. Republicans do not want a fair majority vote on this controversial issue.
In the Aug. 8 election, Issue 1 will only have to reach the 50+1 threshold, the current simple majority, to pass while the reproductive rights amendment in November would need to reach the 60+1 threshold to pass. Republicans are trying to play by their own rules and rigging the game for everyone else. The losers here will be a damaged Ohio Constitution and majority rule in Ohio.
There is much more to the unfairness in Issue 1. Republican legislators set new rules for how signatures are collected on petitions to get a citizen-proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. The rules since 1912 require signatures to be gathered in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, with a minimum 5% of each county’s vote for governor in the most recent election (2022). Under Issue 1’s new rules, the 5% of voter signatures will be required from all 88 counties.
Imagine gathering voter signatures (and the expense involved) in Ohio’s many rural counties, driving miles and miles of county roads with few easy door-to-door neighborhoods. And one person in one county could keep a popular proposal off the ballot.
You will see few of these details on the ballot when you go to vote. Republicans have worked hard to keep voters from realizing they are in effect shutting down a citizen’s right to change the Ohio Constitution.
We are not fools. This election and Issue 1 are a dire threat to democracy and majority rule in Ohio. Vote no on Issue 1.
Mady Noble
Wooster
Letters to the Editor are accepted by email at mplant@alonovus.com. Writers are allowed one letter every 30 days, and letters should include name and address (address not published) and be 500 words or less. AloNovus Corp. reserves the right not to publish and to edit for clarification purposes.