| Issues 1-5, What Do They Really Mean for Ohio? |
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| Written by Daniel White | |
| Wednesday, 02 November 2005 | |
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While not specifically gun related, these five issues being pushed by the Reform Ohio campaign are related to changes to Ohio's constitution. These changes will affect every Ohioan, and you deserve to know what they really mean without the political slanting of the commercials you see on television. If all you need to know is how we at OFCC feel about the issues when you step into the voting booth Tuesday the 8th, we will follow gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell's example and channel the words of former First Lady Nancy Reagan: Just Say No! (Click 'READ MORE' to continue...) The entire text of the five issues are available from the Secretary of State's website by clicking here. Issue 1 Creates funding for high-tech research. This amendment would allow the government to incur up to $1.35 billion in additional debt to fund financial assistance for research and development . The problem, aside from the high cost, is that there is no guarantee any new jobs created by this research would stay in Ohio. There is also $240 million left over from previous bonds issued that is still available to spend. New funds cannot be spent until the old ones are exhausted. At the current rate, the debt incurred today would not be spent until 2009. Basically, the taxpayers would be taking on a huge new debt load to fund research for private corporations that may or may not create new jobs in Ohio. This is all part of Bob Taft's failed Third Frontier Initiative. Issue 2 Expands absentee voting. Would allow any person, without explanation, to vote by mail via an absentee ballot at any time up to thirty days before an election. The person can also vote on election day using a provisional ballot. The second vote is supposed to be disregarded when the first one is received. First of all, this would allow anyone to vote TWICE, and the second vote would only be disregarded if no mistakes were made and it was matched up with the earlier ballot. Second, it has no means to ensure the reliability of the early votes, and does not provide adequate safeguards to ensure that only eligible and qualified voters would be able to use these procedures. Issue 3 Changes the rules for political contributions. This amendment change would favor wealthy individuals and labor unions so that they would have more of an ability to influence politics than everyone else. Grassroots organizations and their PACs (like OFCC) would be limited in what we can donate. Unions, however, would be allowed to set up an unlimited number of "small donor PACs" and contribute as much money as they chose . The limit is supposed to be $50 per member, but there is no requirement that those membership numbers are limited to the constituency of a particular candidate, or even Ohio at all. In addition, wealthy candidates would be able to spend an unlimited amount of their own money to win, giving them an unfair advantage to less wealthy candidates. Issue 4 Allows for the creation of a state redistricting commission. This would create yet another government commission paid for by Ohio taxpayers. This commission would be made up of political appointees charged with maintaining voting districts with no oversight or accountability to Ohio voters. They could create the districts any way they wanted and spend as much tax money as they felt was needed. Even Ohio courts would have no authority over the new bureaucracy. The amendment would require the members to look only at political parties, with only a vague guideline to Gerrymander districts so that they are "competitive." Changing political parties could cause your district to change! Issue 5 Creates a new board to administer elections. This amendment would create yet another appointed board; this one to replace the Ohio Secretary of State in the duties of elections oversight. If passed, all voting in Ohio would be in the hands of an appointed committee, rather than an elected official accountable to the voters, as well as removing the authority of the current bipartisan county elections boards. This board would also have no restrictions or oversight on how much money it needed to spend to accomplish its goals. The truth of the matter is that certain polititians believe that the reason they are not able to win elections is because the system is broken. Since they can't win under the current rules, they want to change the rules to favor them. For all of these reasons, OFCC urges you to vote NO on all five issues to preserve the fair election system we currently have. |