Four Ohio constitutional amendments are scheduled to be voted on November 8th...they are designed and being sold as a way to
"improve accountability and reform Ohio's electoral system."
The proposed amendments.....click any Issue below to open a link to the actual ballot language each with a Pro & Con argument.
Issue 2--Allow people to vote via mail. Issue 3--Limit campaign contributions to ANY political campaign to specific annual amounts.Issue 4--Establish an "Independent Commission" to change legislative districts.Issue 5--Establish a "Board of Elections" to oversee Ohio elections. On the face, the group and the amendments all appear solid and beneficial to effect "reform." However, my issue is that if the Reform Ohio Now's amendments pass, the spelling of OHIO will change to OH-DCNY-IO. With outsiders right in the middle.
What
We The People of Ohio aren't being told is the entire initiative has been driven by
M&R Strategic Services, the Washington, D.C. consulting arm of a large New York lobbying law firm,
Malkin & Ross. M&R actually
established the website two months BEFORE Reform Ohio Now became a
registered Ohio Non-Profit Corporation.
But Reform Ohio Now, claiming to be "a non-partisan group, [is] working with thousands of volunteers across the state to pass these reforms. " Since all (ok, 95.8%) of the
seed money was paid from New York, DC & California lobbyists & special interest groups, how is that "non-partisan" & state based?
Here's how they put it...from: http://www.reformohionow.org/.
Vote YES on Issues 2, 3, 4, & 5 on November 8 - real, common-sense reforms to take our state back from the politicians who have failed us:
Issue 2: Makes it easier to vote by allowing all Ohioans to vote by mail--chance of fraud won't go up at all, would it?
Issue 3: Helps stop the influence of big money in elections by greatly reducing campaign contributions. --If you can't get donations (other than $50 to $250), then only the personally rich will have any chance of being elected.
Issue 4: Stops the politicians from drawing their own legislative districts and puts an Independent Commission in charge of this process. --Don't like the districts now, then vote the bums out of office, impeach them, whatever. Don't like the districts drawn by the appointed "Commission" what recourse do we have? Un-elected means un-accountable. Don't believe it...try to get anything done in a bureaucracy. Ever gone to renew your license plates, get a driver's license?
Issue 5: Places a bi-partisan Board of Supervisors in charge of Ohio's elections, instead of a partisan official who backs candidates and takes sides in elections. --Same as Issue 4. But this one is even more direct. The current Secretary of State who oversees elections was elected in 2002 with 59% of the vote and a margin of 564,000 votes. How's that for democracy at work??
I think we have to ask ourselves...is it truly a better democracy we want or will the U.S. Constitution protect us in Article 4, Section 4..."The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government."
From the "I couldn't have said it better" file....
Democracy is the most vile form of government...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
James Madison
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