After doing research to get supporting facts, I put together the following write-up for my Facebook page, to reach people who want logical reasons to Vote NO on Issue 1. I am sending it to you in case you want to share it with other Democratic Club members for them to edit/reuse as they wish. No need to credit me! I purposefully left out any abortion reference, because the effects will be much more far-reaching.
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If you have not requested your absentee ballot for the Aug. 8th election, to vote (hopefully NO) on ISSUE 1, here is the link: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-ballot/
For Cuyahoga County voters: https://boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/voters/vote-by-mail
ISSUE 1 is something to pay attention to. Our Ohio legislature wants to narrow the Ohio's Citizen Initiative, which was put in place in 1912 to address big money (business tycoons in steel, coal, banking, railroad, etc) controlling Ohio politics. It allows average citizens to propose and pass amendments to the Ohio Constitution to counter Statehouse corruption and special-interest influence. It should come as no surprise that the "vote yes to issue 1" campaign is mainly funded by an out-of-state megadonor (billionaire Richard Uihlein).
The Ohio Citizen Initiative rights have not been abused. In the last 73 years (since 1950), only 10 citizen proposed amendments have passed. https://www.commoncause.org/.../Ballot-measures-Sheet1-1.pdf Four of Ohio's past governors, including 2 Republican ones, are against Issue 1.
Ohio is spending $20 million of our tax dollars to hold the election, after passing House Bill 458 in Dec. 2022 to limit August elections due to the high cost and low voter turnout, except for fiscal emergencies & school Levies. Many question how Issue 1 (the only item on the ballot) is a "fiscal emergency."
Here are a couple of articles containing more information:
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