Posted on 08/09/2005 7:37:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Backers of three ballot issues to dramatically change Ohio elections said Tuesday that they are confident that voters are so sick of politics-as-usual that they will support the changes on Nov. 8.
Reform Ohio Now, a coalition of labor unions and Democrat-leaning activists, on Tuesday filed petitions with 521,000 signatures for each of three issues with Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's chief elections official.
The group cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday when the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a lawsuit seeking to keep the issues off the ballot.
One of the ballot issues would change the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn, another would create a state elections board and the third would lower the individual limit on campaign contributions.
Backers say Ohioans need to take more control of their elections because of the current investment scandal involving majority Republicans at the Statehouse and an elections system they see as flawed.
"We, the citizens, are supposed to drive the system, not the politicians," said Jan Fleming of Uptown Progressives, a Columbus community activist group. "Elected officials now choose the voters, rather than the other way around."
The backers need 322,000 valid signatures of registered voters, or 10 percent of the total vote in the 2002 election for governor. The petitions will be sent this week or early next week to their counties of origin to verify that the signatures match those of registered voters, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said. The counties will have about two weeks to verify them, he said.
If the backers have enough signatures and at least 5 percent of the total of those registered in at least 44 counties, the issues will be placed on the ballot. If they fall short, the backers will get another 10 days to meet their goal.
If the issues are certified there would be four statewide issues on the ballot this fall. Lawmakers last week put a $2 billion jobs-and-construction issue on the ballot.
Currently, legislative lines are drawn every 10 years by the state Apportionment Board, consisting of the governor, auditor, secretary of state and a lawmaker from each party. Republicans control the board and the Legislature, which draws congressional boundaries.
Lines are drawn to strengthen the ruling party's majority. Republicans, who took over the board in 1990, now control the Ohio House 60-39 and the state Senate 22-11. The congressional delegation favors the GOP 13-5 and both U.S. Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich are Republicans.
Under the proposal, a judge-appointed, five-person board would choose redistricting plans that anyone could submit. The idea has been tried several times over the last three decades by various groups, including the League of Women Voters of Ohio, but has never made it through the Legislature.
Voters in 1981 rejected a similar redistricting amendment backed by Republicans. Democrats took control of all statewide executive offices and both houses of the Legislature the next year.
The lawsuit filed last week on behalf of a group called Ohio First sought to keep the issues off the ballot because they did not include language that would be deleted from the Ohio Constitution. Former Senate President Richard Finan, a Republican who is the group's lawyer, said no decision had been made on further challenges.
Another proposal would put a nine-member, bipartisan board in charge of elections in Ohio. Some believe that secretaries of state supporting their own party in elections is a conflict of interest.
The third proposal would lower the limit on individual contributions from $10,000 to $2,000 for statewide candidates and $1,000 for legislative candidates.
Conservatives need to go out in force to avoid losing their voice and vote.
I'm an Ohio voter. They can put it on our ballot and we'll shove it right back up their tail.
Voting against it won't be enough to shut these voters up they will then ask for recounts and make up conspiracies that diebold controlled the vote when diebold wasn't even used in the last election in Ohio.
Ohio activist democrats are some of the most selfish whiners in this country.
They are?
Will these be listed as three different amendments, or three amendments in one?
This has a backdoor redistricting plan. It also creates new bureaucracy for elections. Isn't that what the Secretary of State's office is already for?
But it's all about reform. No, it couldn't be about the fact that these people are so bitter that their guy who they thought would coast to victory got out-hustled and out-worked by his opponent in this state last year.
On an interesting note, you have not seen The Ohio Democratic Party come out fully for this. With all the scandal right now, it might be better for them to have this thing not pass!
Haha! Zing!
I'll bet my paycheck less than half those signitures are valid.
Cudda fooled me! :)
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