{"id":14134,"date":"2024-11-01T01:29:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T01:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=14134"},"modified":"2024-11-01T01:29:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T01:29:52","slug":"issue-1-commentary-a-citizens-led-ballot-issue-can-ban-gerrymandering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/issue-1-commentary-a-citizens-led-ballot-issue-can-ban-gerrymandering\/","title":{"rendered":"ISSUE 1 Commentary: \u00a0A Citizens-led Ballot Issue Can Ban Gerrymandering"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sanford Lubin<\/strong><\/em>
\nGuest Column<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ohio citizens have a legal recourse for protecting constitutional rights
\nthat is not available to residents of most of the states in the country.
\nThere are 18 states in the U.S. (which includes Ohio) where citizens can
\norganize and place an issue on the ballot to amend the constitution in their
\nstate.<\/p>\n

This approach involving a citizens-led constitutional amendment is being
\nused in the November 2024 elections to enable Ohio voters to finally ban
\ngerrymandered election districts with the passage of Issue 1.<\/p>\n

When Politicians are out of touch with the Voters
\n<\/strong>
\nWhen politicians are out of touch with the needs and wants of citizens,
\nresidents in each of the 18 states can organize to place a ballot issue
\nbefore the voters. \u00a0In the other 32 states, the legislature completely
\ncontrols the ability to make laws, and citizens do not have the right to
\norganize and amend the state constitution.<\/p>\n

In the early 1900s, Ohio was known to citizens around the country.
\nPeriodically, articles appeared in newspapers across the U.S. disclosing
\nbribery scandals involving Ohio legislators taking money in exchange for the
\nlegislator’s support for whatever new law someone was willing to make a
\nbribery payment.<\/p>\n

Ohio citizens became incensed and organized an effort to address this issue.
\nIn 1912, Ohioans were able to place an issue before voters that allowed
\ncitizens to organize and place issues on the ballot. \u00a0The 1912 ballot issue
\npassed with overwhelming support and was used to clean up corruption in the
\nGeneral Assembly. \u00a0And it has been used over the past 112 years to address
\nissues for which Ohio politicians have been out of touch with the voters.<\/p>\n

Gerrymandered Election Districts and Reproductive Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

During 2022 and 2023 a group of Ohio citizens began organizing another
\neffort to ban gerrymandering. \u00a0And at the same time, another group of
\ncitizens began the work of restoring reproductive rights to women in the
\nstate. \u00a0Each group worked to organize separate citizens-led constitutional
\namendments.<\/p>\n

In counter these citizen initiatives, a number of Ohio politicians led an
\neffort to call a special election for a ballot issue in August 2023 that, if
\npassed, would have effectively ended the use of citizen-led constitutional
\namendments. \u00a0One of the politicians leading this effort, Ohio Secretary of
\nState Frank LaRose, told citizens that this ballot issue was needed in order
\nto “protect Ohioans from out of state special interests groups.”<\/p>\n

Media organizations around the state revealed information showing that this
\ninformation from LaRose and other Ohio politicians leading this effort was
\nnot truthful, and instead had misled Ohio citizens in an attempt to deceive
\nthem into forfeiting their long-held rights involving citizen-led ballot
\nissues.<\/p>\n

A June 1 article by Andrew Tobias on Cleveland.com revealed plans by the
\npoliticians organizing the August ballot issue for funding a communications
\ncampaign needed to reach voters. –<\/p>\n

“The closed-door presentation . . . shows how Republican legislative leaders
\nbacking the campaign plan . . . to raise $6 million to bankroll their effort
\n. . . by leaning on Capitol Square lobbyists during budget season, a pivotal
\ntime for lobbyists as they seek to add their myriad priorities to the
\nmassive spending bill.”<\/p>\n

Further undermining LaRose’s claims that the August ballot issue was being
\ndone to provide protections against “special interests and out-of-state
\nactivists” is information released by the Columbus Dispatch in an April 27,
\n2023 article.<\/p>\n

The newspaper disclosed that an out-of-state (Illinois) billionaire
\nactivist, Richard Uihlein, gave $1 million to a PAC controlled by these Ohio
\npoliticians to help fund the August campaign to supposedly protect Ohio
\ncitizens from “out-of-state activists”(like Richard Uihlein)<\/p>\n

And thanks to the media, Ohio citizens learned the truthful reasons why Ohio
\npoliticians introduced the August special election ballot issue.<\/p>\n

According to a May 10, 2023 article by Jo Ingles and Karen Kasler in
\nthe Statehouse News Bureau, the August ballot issue’s primary sponsor in the
\nOhio House of Representatives was Brian Stewart (R-Ashville, Oh). Stewart
\nexplained, in a private letter to members of his political party, that the
\npurpose of this legislation was to block two upcoming citizen-led
\nconstitutional amendments.<\/p>\n

One of the constitutional amendments that would be blocked was the amendment planned for November 2023 that would restore reproductive rights to women in the state. \u00a0And the second constitutional amendment that would be blocked was the citizen-led ballot issue being planned for November 2024 that would, if passed as Issue 1, finally ban gerrymandered election districts in the state.<\/p>\n

In spite of the multi-million dollar media campaign organized by Ohio
\npoliticians for the August 2023 special election, voters in the state
\noverwhelmingly rejected this ballot issue in order to protect their right to
\nplace a citizens-led constitutional amendment on the ballot.<\/p>\n

And in November 2024, a citizens-led constitutional amendment titled
\nCitizens Not Politicians has been placed on the ballot as Issue 1 in order to
\nprovide Ohio voters a chance to finally ban the practice of gerrymandered
\nelection districts in the state.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the author-Sanford Lubin is a retired publisher and senior editor of<\/em>
\nan Ohio media corporation. \u00a0He is focused on initiatives supporting
\nconstitutional rights, the rule of law, and the protection of democracy.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sanford Lubin Guest Column Ohio citizens have a legal recourse for protecting constitutional rights that is not available to residents of most of the states in the country. There are 18 states in the U.S. (which includes Ohio) where citizens can organize and place an issue on the ballot to amend the constitution in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[260],"class_list":["post-14134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14135,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions\/14135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14134"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=14134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}