It’s time to go …. to the polls, that is, to vote NO on Issue 1. You can start voting at your early voting location right NOW, or you can wait until election day, August 8. But vote NO.
Let’s blow up some of the lies that the “yes” side is putting out there. One of them is “a constitution SHOULD be harder to amend,” implying that it’s so easy to pass a constitutional amendment in Ohio. They falsely compare amending a state constitution, an entirely different type of document, to the U.S. Constitution. (Learn more about how they’re different here.)
In fact, it’s very difficult for citizens to amend the Ohio constitution now. In the 111 years that option has been available, there have been 71 citizen-initiated amendments on the ballot. Only 19 have passed. Plus, Issue 1 would make it almost impossible for citizens to even get an amendment on the ballot to begin with, adding daunting signature requirements.
But there’s another lie, put out last week by state representative Brian Stewart: that if we keep the bar at 50%+1 instead of raising it to 60%, those on the left who want to block Issue 1 so they can pass a reproductive rights measure in November will be upset when Republicans put stuff they hate on the ballot. But Republicans will STILL have that ability, even if Issue 1 passes. The onerous new signature only applies to citizen-led initiatives — not those coming from the legislature. Of the 227 times a constitutional amendment has been on the Ohio ballot, the vast majority came from the legislature, with 108 of those passing.
In other words, Issue 1 is about obliterating citizens’ power while keeping the power of politicians intact. This is especially outrageous given that Ohio has one of the most gerrymandered legislatures in the country. To put a constitutional amendment on the ballot requires a 3/5ths vote in the legislature — 60%. But currently Republicans hold 68% of the state house of representatives and a whopping 79% of the state senate. NO on Issue 1 will also leave the door open to replacing politicians drawing districts with an independent redistricting commission, something Republicans fear as much as the November vote on reproductive rights. It would likely drop their majority to 55-60%, in line with the percentage of the vote they get.
Still another lie being pumped out is that Yes on Issue 1 would protect Ohio’s constitution from “big-money, out-of-state special interests.” The yes campaign is funded in part by billionaire Richard Uihlein, resident of the upper-class, country-club Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. (The rich man whose wife Gatsby has an affair with in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is from Lake Forest.) So “yes” is a bald-faced attempt by an out-of-state billionaire to buy the Ohio constitution.
The bottom line is that Issue 1 is about making sure that the Ohio GOP’s outsized power is locked in for keeps. And the only answer to that is NO — no way, not on your life, absolutely NOT.
Here’s a good explainer from the Akron Beacon Journal: ohio-august-special-election-what-to-know-about-issue-1-amendment/70358788007/.
