Category: Civil Liberty

Issue 1 is asking Ohio voters to go to the polls, put our hands around our own necks, and strangle away our own power to hold out-of-control Statehouse lobbyists and lawmakers accountable… Republicans and their lobbyist friends are attempting to execute the largest, most anti-democratic, Big Government power grab in state history.

The wild desperation of the lobbyists and politicians attacking voters and the Ohio Constitution

Traditional Democratic allies like Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO and numerous left-leaning labor groups have been joined by the Fraternal Order of Police and the Libertarian Party. The bipartisan Ohio Association of Elections Officials came out in official opposition to it because of the added work and unnecessary cost to taxpayers, which is expected to run as high as $20 million.

“An Attempt to Fool Voters”: Ohio GOP Sets Up Vote To Weaken Direct Democracy

The law prohibits state officials from using their official authority to interfere with elections, and the Libertarian Party says LaRose crossed that line.

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/01/ohio-issue-1-frank-larose-accused-of-violating-hatch-act/70504428007/

I think there can be good faith arguments on either side. My issue is less with the 60% and moreso against increasing signature requirements and eliminating the 10 day cure period. This will just ensure that only mega special interests will be able to put anything on the ballot in the first place.

Dustin Nanna, Libertarian Party of Ohio Executive Committee Chair

The requirement to get 5% of electors to sign petitions in all 88 counties and eliminating the 10 day period where additional signatures could be turned in, is going to make it far more expensive and difficult to get something ON the ballot. Not to mention this whole “protect the Ohio Constitution from ‘outside influence’” is a joke as the push for this issue to be put on the ballot and the YES campaign is being funded by an Illinois MAGA Pro-Life billionaire; and the legislature is violating the Ohio law by holding a special election outside of the requirements they passed into law in 2021. The ONLY reason this is coming up is because of a possible abortion ballot measure slated to be on the Nov ballot.

They’re moving the goal posts with out of state money to preemptively thwart that. Don’t like abortion, vote no on THAT issue; not yes to change the rules that will prevent Ohioans from initiating something the legislature won’t do, or overturning something the legislature did. This bill gives the legislature more power.

The purpose of having a citizen ballot initiative is to let the people do something the legislature can’t or won’t do (ineffective or overbearing government). Making it harder to get something on the ballot by increasing the signature requirement from 3% to 5%, and eliminating the 10 day “soak period” is adding barriers to citizens ability to do this. It will insure that only well funded special interest groups can do it. The Ohio GOP has gerrymandered themselves into power in the state house and senate. Now they want to protect their policies or inaction by them by making it harder for the people to act. No thanks.

Derek Strelow, Libertarian Party of Ohio Executive Committee Vice Chair

I don’t have much of a problem with the 60% threshold to change the constitution. I do have a big problem with the 5% signature threshold. That is impossible to hit without paid signature gatherers, and it is roughly $4 million in cost to gather that many valid signatures. Also, passing it through on a special election is kinda a scummy move as well.

Drake Lundstrum, Libertarian Party of Ohio Executive Committee Member & Field Development Director

Why are we voting on this now after having this constitutional right for over 100 years? Why are we voting on it in a special August election that will have low turnout and cost taxpayers over $20 million? To just forget how the Ohio GOP changed the rules for our ballot access in 2013 and fail to see how now they’re changing the rules again for ALL citizens to amend our constitution, shows an unfortunate lack of understanding about what has been happening in our Statehouse for the last 10 years.

Travis Irvine, 2018 Libertarian Party Candidate for Governor & Communications Director

It’s such bullshit. I am extremely on board with the idea of making the voting threshhold to change the constitution harder, but why on Earth would anyone think it’s reasonable to make it harder to see those issues reach the ballot?

Issue 1 is probably gonna make a ballot initiative cost about $700,000+. It’s literally ripping democracy out of the hands of anyone who isn’t corporate interest.

AJ Olding, Libertarian Party of Ohio Member

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles sand organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence