CLEVELAND, Ohio – There’s good news and bad news, and then, there’s putrid news.
The bad news is we must put up with Frank LaRose, the saddest excuse of a Secretary of State ever, for another two years. The good news is, if he screws up enough, he’ll either disqualify himself for reelection, or our reluctantly red state may actually realize we deserve better and vote someone else in.
The putrid news is LaRose and an Ohio subset of the “political rodents” club (thank you, Brent Larkin!) are out to confuse and manipulate the people of Ohio, once AGAIN. Out of fear, they want us to misunderstand Issue 1 in the upcoming November general election. They want us to think it will hurt us, rather than help us (Hint: Vote yes).
I think it’s confusing that this is our third high-stakes Issue 1 in little more than a year. But this one is the most important, because it empowers us, the voters of Ohio, to be in charge of our politicians, rather than our politicians being in charge of us.
Remember the Issue 1 in August 2023 focused on requiring super majorities, rather than simple majorities, to pass citizen-initiated amendments? The rat pack pulled that stunt before we voted on the November 2023 Issue 1 to enshrine abortion and reproductive healthcare rights in the Ohio constitution. We, the people, saw through their deceitful ways and defeated the August one and approved the latter. Two beautiful wins for the people.
Now we have Issue 1 from Citizens Not Politicians. If passed, it will end the gerrymandering Ohio has suffered for more than a century. Of course, twice – first in 2014 and again in 2018, we thought we voted for constitutional changes that would make the redistricting manipulation stop. Ha!
The Citizens Not Politicians campaign and the nonpartisan powerhouse, Fair Districts, a group of grassroot organizations, have worked more than two years to get this Issue 1 on the upcoming general election ballot. People from all parties and all parts of Ohio have joined the effort. Over 100 groups have endorsed it.
When we pass it, and we will, politicians and lobbyists will be banned from drawing maps of our statehouse and congressional voting districts. Instead, real people like you and me will form an equitable 15 person commission (five people from each of the three main political parties) to work transparently and with the input of all Ohio voters to create fair and representational voting district maps.
The plan to confound us started when LaRose drafted ballot language that twisted the meaning of the original proposed amendment, as written by Citizens Not Politicians. He submitted this purposefully confusing summary to the Ohio Ballot Board on which he, himself, sits, and the board approved it.
So, Citizens Not Politicians sued, forcing the Ohio Supreme Court to review the wording with hopes the justices would correct the inaccuracies. Though two small adjustments were made, the most egregious portion, saying the new commission is required to gerrymander district boundaries, remains. What poppycock!
Ballot language is not the same as amendment language, folks. The “political rodents” are trying to scare us and pull off a heist of our best chance to finally end gerrymandering. And remember, anytime we make a change to our constitution, other parts must change or go away to make room for the new part, that’s how it works.
You’d think the Ohio Supreme Court would want to help the issue pass, given it had to review seven gerrymandered redistricting maps in 2022 and 2023 submitted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, only to reject them all because they didn’t meet the requirements of Ohio’s most recent constitutional amendments (2014 and 2018) regarding equitable reapportionment of voters.
Gerrymandering is old. It has been undermining voters in Ohio since the middle of the 19th century. When voting districts are carefully carved to help one party maintain power and incumbents to remain in office, voters lose the will to vote. They feel their votes don’t count when they see the same old same old, over and over.
Don’t be fooled. Issue 1 will stop the gerrymandering. It will clean up the process of mapping our voting districts and get us all involved. It will lead to a more engaged public and greater opportunity for better candidates for every office.
The Brennan Center offers a nice timeline of what has transpired since 2021 to make Citizen Not Politicians a crucial solution to an insidious problem.
If you’re interested in reading the original language of the initiative you can find it on the Citizens Not Politicians website and there’s clear explanations on the League of Women Voters of Ohio “Get to Know Your Government” page.
I don’t think a lot of us read our ballots very closely, so most of us probably won’t bother reading the summary of Issue 1. By the time we’re marking our ballots, we’ve already decided where we stand. So how harmful is the twisting and fear mongering the certain few have used to ruin our chance to clean house?
Very. Not because they’ll succeed, but because they are the people we’re supposed to trust to run our Ohio government and keep our elections clean. By trying to fool us once again, they prove themselves unworthy of their office. We need leaders to prioritize our good over their own careers, pockets and parties.
We’re gonna have to show them how smart we are, again. And probably, again and again. But eventually, all of our elected leaders will understand they have to work for us, the People of Ohio.
Read the original piece here.