To the Editor:

Issue 1 will change three things about the way we approve “citizen-initiated” constitutional amendments.

(1) How many votes it takes to approve one. (2) How many counties must demonstrate that they want one on the ballot. (3) How many chances signature collectors get to collect them.

First, a word about “citizen-initiated.” They’re not truly “citizen-initiated” anymore! They’re “special-interest” initiated. The one coming in November was written by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU and “submitted” by an Ohio citizen. Almost the exact same Planned Parenthood/ACLU amendment has been submitted in six other states. So, the constitutional protections Issue 1 advocates is not stealing rights from citizens. It is protecting citizens from nefarious outside interests with deep pockets telling Ohioans how to live their lives.

Why should rural counties like ours approve Issue 1? Let’s look at the three components of Issue 1 mentioned above:

(1) Ohio has 88 counties, but half the population of Ohio lives (and votes) in just nine counties. Shelby County has under 48,000 people. Franklin County has over 1.3 million people. Do we want the nine big-city counties telling us rural counties how to live our lives? How to farm? How to manufacture? How much to pay our employees? What cars we can drive? What guns we can (or cannot) have? What pronouns we have to use when speaking to someone? If not, then we need to vote “yes” on Issue 1.

(2) Do we want to have a voice in which amendments get on the ballot? We don’t have that voice right now. But approving Issue 1 ensures that we are consulted before the amendment ever gets on the ballot.

(3) Why do we give do-overs to signature collectors when they fail to meet their deadline? They know the requirements before they even start collecting signatures. Approving Issue 1 says we expect them to play by the rules and quit getting do-overs. It’s that simple.

Rural counties like ours don’t get opportunities to strike a blow at big-city dominance in Ohio politics very often. We have a chance to take a little bit of the power away from the nine big-city counties and return it to smaller, rural counties like ours by voting “yes” on Issue 1. If you don’t want big-city liberals telling us how to live our lives, then vote “yes” on Issue 1!

Dan Cecil – [email protected]

Sidney