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From the Columbus Dispatch...
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
--Convince me that passage of this amendment will not result in Ohio becoming (more of) a national laughingstock,
--Convince me that this amendment will not get laughed out of court the second it is challenged, should it get passed,
--Convince me that these sorts of issues were not decided by the Civil War, and that these crackerass crackers aren't fantasizing about a reprise.
This country's last remaining shreds of sanity will self-destruct in five seconds.
A ruling by a state board yesterday cleared the way for a citizens group to begin collecting petition signatures to put on the fall ballot an issue that supporters say would rein in government gone astray.
Among other things, the Ohio Sovereignty Amendment would allow juries to nullify laws; expand the right to bear arms and maintain militias; permit the recall of elected officials by petition signatures alone; ban federal enforcement of laws except through a county sheriff; and require that all public school operations through the 12th grade be regulated at the district level only.
"I think it's about time we get back on track because the government is running our country into the ground," said Michael Young of the Peoples Constitution Coalition of Ohio, which is seeking the amendment. "It's always been the duty of the people to hold government accountable, but we've failed in that duty."
The Ohio Ballot Board voted 3-1 to certify the proposed constitutional amendment as a single issue, allowing the group to start circulating petition forms with the goal of putting the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot. The board did not determine whether the proposal would be constitutional or legal.
The group must collect 402,275 valid signatures of registered voters by June 30, including signatures from at least 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio equaling 5 percent of the 2006 vote for governor in each of those counties.
Young, a construction worker from Mount Vernon, said if the coalition is unable to get the issue on the fall ballot, it will try next year.
He said the group, which needed four attempts before the Ohio attorney general's office certified a summary of the proposed amendment, hopes to have thousands of volunteers statewide circulating petition forms.
The ballot board's role was to determine whether the proposal was a single issue or needed to be broken up into different measures.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who leads the board, questioned whether voters would have difficulty deciding the measure as a single ballot issue if they supported some aspects of the proposal but not others.
But in the end, Brunner voted to certify the proposal as a single issue. Board member Rebecca L. Egelhoff dissented without comment.
Young and others argued that it was one issue because all of the provisions fall under a common theme of defining state sovereignty and the mechanisms for preserving it.
Last month, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned a ballot board decision to split an unrelated proposal into two issues, saying as long as the subject matter "bears some reasonable relationship to a single general object or purpose, the board must certify its approval of the amendment as written without dividing it."
To read the proposed Ohio Sovereignty Amendment, go to: https://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/uplo...rtLetterAG.pdf.
Among other things, the Ohio Sovereignty Amendment would allow juries to nullify laws; expand the right to bear arms and maintain militias; permit the recall of elected officials by petition signatures alone; ban federal enforcement of laws except through a county sheriff; and require that all public school operations through the 12th grade be regulated at the district level only.
"I think it's about time we get back on track because the government is running our country into the ground," said Michael Young of the Peoples Constitution Coalition of Ohio, which is seeking the amendment. "It's always been the duty of the people to hold government accountable, but we've failed in that duty."
The Ohio Ballot Board voted 3-1 to certify the proposed constitutional amendment as a single issue, allowing the group to start circulating petition forms with the goal of putting the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot. The board did not determine whether the proposal would be constitutional or legal.
The group must collect 402,275 valid signatures of registered voters by June 30, including signatures from at least 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio equaling 5 percent of the 2006 vote for governor in each of those counties.
Young, a construction worker from Mount Vernon, said if the coalition is unable to get the issue on the fall ballot, it will try next year.
He said the group, which needed four attempts before the Ohio attorney general's office certified a summary of the proposed amendment, hopes to have thousands of volunteers statewide circulating petition forms.
The ballot board's role was to determine whether the proposal was a single issue or needed to be broken up into different measures.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who leads the board, questioned whether voters would have difficulty deciding the measure as a single ballot issue if they supported some aspects of the proposal but not others.
But in the end, Brunner voted to certify the proposal as a single issue. Board member Rebecca L. Egelhoff dissented without comment.
Young and others argued that it was one issue because all of the provisions fall under a common theme of defining state sovereignty and the mechanisms for preserving it.
Last month, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned a ballot board decision to split an unrelated proposal into two issues, saying as long as the subject matter "bears some reasonable relationship to a single general object or purpose, the board must certify its approval of the amendment as written without dividing it."
To read the proposed Ohio Sovereignty Amendment, go to: https://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/uplo...rtLetterAG.pdf.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
--Convince me that passage of this amendment will not result in Ohio becoming (more of) a national laughingstock,
--Convince me that this amendment will not get laughed out of court the second it is challenged, should it get passed,
--Convince me that these sorts of issues were not decided by the Civil War, and that these crackerass crackers aren't fantasizing about a reprise.
This country's last remaining shreds of sanity will self-destruct in five seconds.
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