By Charlotte Caldwell
[email protected]

SIDNEY – Ohio voters will decide the fate of Issue 1 in the special election on Aug. 8, and Shelby County affiliates on opposite sides of the issue explained how they think people should vote.

The way Issue 1 will appear on the ballot is:

“The proposed amendment would:

• Require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Ohio receive the approval of at least 60 percent of eligible voters voting on the proposed amendment.

• Require that any initiative petition filed on or after January 1, 2024 with the Secretary of State proposing to amend the Constitution of the State of Ohio be signed by at least five percent of the electors of each county based on the total vote in the county for governor in the last preceding election.

• Specify that additional signatures may not be added to an initiative petition proposing to amend the Constitution of the State of Ohio that is filed with the Secretary of State on or after January 1, 2024 proposing to amend the Constitution of the State of Ohio.

If passed, the amendment will be effective immediately.”

Proponents of Issue 1

The Shelby County Liberty Group hosted a town hall to convince voters to vote yes on Issue 1 at the Calvary United Baptist Church on Aug. 1.

Shelby County Republican Party Chairman Dan Cecil started the town hall with about 20 people in attendance with a presentation, followed by remarks from Ohio’s 85^th District State Rep. Tim Barhorst and Shelby County Right to Life Director Anne Schmiesing.

Cecil mentioned in the presentation that the United States is a Constitutional Republic, and the way a Constitutional Republic would be attacked would be to attack the Constitution. He said the Constitution is being attacked in Ohio and in the United States. He also mentioned that the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate, also known as the General Assembly, need a 60% affirmative vote to approve an amendment proposed by either branch of the General Assembly, called the “Legislative Constitutional Amendment Process,” and it has remained unchanged for 221 years. He referenced other organizations that require higher percentages to change their constitutions, like the Democratic Party of Ohio at 60%, the ACLU of Ohio at 60%, and Ohio local chapters of NAACP at 66%.

However, as Cecil said, Issue 1 focuses on the Citizen-Initiated Constitutional Amendment process, which was added as another way to amend the Ohio Constitution in 1912. These amendments are drafted by citizens and currently need 50% of voters plus one voter to be passed. They also need signatures of approval from voters in 44 counties and do not need to go through the General Assembly. Since 1912 when this amendment process was added, 161 amendments have been added to the Ohio Constitution, compared to 12 in the U.S. Constitution.

“We don’t muck around with our Constitution. It’s too important. People lost their lives protecting and defending that Constitution, and we need to take it seriously, and that is not taking it seriously when you just allow the populous to vote 50% plus one to make a change to it,” Cecil said. “Our legislature is powerless. They cannot even govern our state because someone could come in right behind them and just make whatever they do unconstitutional.”

Cecil showed a graph explaining nine counties in Ohio – Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Summit, Montgomery, Lucas, Butler, Stark and Lorain counties – contain over 50% of Ohio’s population and would be able to make all the decisions for the state if representative government was abandoned. Also, for collecting signatures for citizen amendments, Cecil said signatures would currently be collected in the most populous 44 counties in the state, which excludes Shelby County.

Barhorst spoke next with regard to his experience in the Ohio House and issues that could soon be voted on that the Republicans would like to thwart, like changes to abortion, recreational marijuana, the minimum wage and the second amendment.

“The concern that we have as conservative members of the Ohio House is that we will be basically neutered as Chairman Dan Cecil said. Any legislation that we get through would, if the left and liberal coasts of New York and California didn’t like it, they would just come with the citizen-sponsored initiative, because we’ve got this super majority and every seat we grab that’s less power that they would have.

What these initiatives do, the further they push them left, is it divides us more. It makes us not want to be a part of this country, this state. It angers everyone. We already have this going on, why do we want to accelerate this even more?” Barhorst said.

Schmiesing spoke about the potential for “abortion on demand” and the removal of parental consent for abortions and sex changes being on the ballot and passed in November if Issue 1 fails and her experience in abortion healing ministry.

“We can’t keep up because abortion is still legal, and so many people talk about how if it had not been legal, this would not have been something that they would have considered. So we have a field hospital here, we’re in triage basically, because we still have people coming in. We can’t sufficiently help bring people to the peace that they need because the killing is still happening.

We are being forced to vote on a bundle that is a tainted bundle,” she said about reproductive rights legislation that could be on the ballot in November. “In Ohio, it’s not in the Constitution but in our Ohio Revised Code, we have a section that you are only allowed to have a single subject for an amendment. They wrote this intentionally with several that are completely, fundamentally different, because one of the five that’s listed on there is continuing one’s own pregnancy, so basically giving birth, having the natural course of things happen, and they also list abortion.”

Opponents of Issue 1

Thomas Kerrigan, an attorney based in Sidney and a member of Shelby County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, weighed in on the issue when asked for input.

“Some believe there are three branches of government which serve as a ‘check and balance’ of each other. To me there is a fourth check and balance…the ultimate check and balance…the American voter. One person, one vote. I urge all to vote no.

Let’s face it, lobbyists have made the legislature corrupt with bribery schemes and gerrymandering. Lobbyists for big utilities, big insurance and the extremely wealthy (on both sides) will always do what they do to get the three main branches of government in Ohio to make decisions that benefit them. ‘We the People’ with one person, one vote are the ultimate check and balance. The great equalizer to me is a jury of your peers (one juror equals one vote) and I see this election the same way…one person equals one vote. I ask all respectfully to vote no,” Kerrigan said.

Christopher Gibbs, a farmer who was previously nominated by the Shelby County Democratic Party to serve on the Shelby County Board of Elections, also provided input.

“The assertion by the chief architects of Ohio Issue 1, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Pickaway County lawmaker Brian Stewart, that Ohio’s Constitution is somehow for sale or easy prey for special interests is somewhere between sleight of hand, pure poppycock, and raw fear of the Ohio voter. Their argument is little more than a solution in search of a problem.

“One hundred and eleven years ago, in 1912, the citizens of Ohio were tired of corrupt legislators doing the bidding for their own special interest, so those citizens took control by voting in a 50% plus one majority for amendments.

“If the Ohio Issue 1 proposal to raise the bar for the voters to 60% would have been in effect over time, it would have thwarted only two constitutional amendment attempts since 1950.

“But that’s all academic. The real truth is much more sinister and has nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of hardening the ability of citizens to trump their own rouge legislators and govern themselves.

“The attempt by the sponsors and the super majority in the Ohio General Assembly is a brazen, bare-bones, open-air, out-in-the-daylight attack on Ohio women. It’s an attack on women’s right to privacy, their right to free speech, and even their right to travel.

“Supporters are petrified of both women voters and an upcoming ballot initiative (The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety). The November issue, if approved, will enshrine the right for women to privately consider and manage their own health care and nothing more.

“Attempting to move the goalposts during a recreated special August election that was outlawed by the same General Assembly less than a year ago under House Bill 458 because of cost and low turnout concerns shows how much Issue 1 supporters fear the Ohio voter.

“But for me, as a farmer and agribusiness supporter, I’m particularly disappointed in my Ohio agriculture advocacy bureaus and livestock commodity organizations disregarding the women of agriculture and supporting Ohio Issue 1.

“In my experience, farm women are by nature independent thinkers and doers. They can analyze complex decisions quickly, cut through the clutter, and call it like they see it.

“Women are the largest single farmland owner group in Ohio. This is why I’m so perplexed that boards of directors representing agriculture would take the bait offered by the Ohio General Assembly and support Ohio Issue 1 when it’s designed to limit the ability of farm wives, sisters, daughters, and granddaughters to speak their own mind, make their own decisions, and control their own health care,” Gibbs said.