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Wednesday, August 9, 2023

One person, one vote

Well, the semi-legal August vote had exactly one state wide issue on the ballot, and according to Akron's rag, Issue 1 went down. But no, it didn't. Yes, it did not pass, but it so succeeded with a million, seven hundred thousand and counting votes to a million five.

This initiative was entirely GOP sponsored. To start, Ohio's GOP controlled state legislature had decided August elections were too expensive and to end them. Yes, a good idea, until a "bad" citizen sponsored ballot item began gaining traction. It was speedily resurrected in hope of putting a greater obstacle in front of those who opposed  the GOP agenda. 

The GOP agenda: to support the Supreme Court's decision to end Roev.Rade, a woman's right to an abortion. The problem: a citizen initiative gained enough signatures (and then some) to make a new Ohio law, replacing that right. (An answer to the dare SCOTUS threw down!) The GOP solution: to change our constitutional right how a new law is put to a vote. Currently our constitution says citizens can initiate a new law by asking by majority, can it be placed for a vote at the next election.

The GOP was asking for a super majority. 60% of the voters had to request the initiative go to the ballot. So, not one person, one vote. 1.1 persons, one vote. That harks back to some evil days. Right here in the present, it says one woman needs to find another to make her vote count. The same applies to any man who supports her position. 

The majority GOP suddenly realized the first best way to thwart the citizen initiative  currently meeting all requirements for the November ballot was to make it more difficult to reach the ballot. A retrospective attempt, but who's counting legality? They threw the super majority on to a resurrected August vote. It will cost the State twenty million. Then it will cost each county an additional amount. Cuyahoga County has appropriated $3.2 million. And so forth and so on.

Those in favor of putting a super majority in place say it will prevent monied "Out of State interests, plus the ACLU, et.al" from hijacking our constitution. These are the sort of ideas that are thrown out to people afraid what they have will change. In my opinion, the way to change that is to organize, get out and vote for what you want. Don't simply make it more difficult for the opposition to make change.

One counter argument I heard made me laugh, quietly. It was that the majority of our counties are rural and it's more difficult to get out and vote. I pointed out that when they wanted Bush, they got out and voted. And then when they wanted O'Bama gone, they got out and voted for Trump. Twice. 

A supermajority makes no sense. As I learned in eighth grade civics, you change your constitution by amendment.

Ohio is the only state with an "abortion" issue potentially going to the ballot. We see the GOP is afraid of the outcome. Why? It's a woman who is pregnant. It is her decision to the course of the pregnancy, not the decision of the state! 


From The Farmer's Almanac for 2023. I wonder if it correlates?

28 comments:

  1. Democracy? Doesn't sound like it, does it. This is so sad and infuriating

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  2. Hari OM
    I just can't believe the retrograde state of things over your way. There's lots of bluster about such things here - but thankfully, no action on it. So far. YAM xx

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  3. I keep hoping that people will regain their senses and vote for People. I do see small changes here and there so maybe...... I have been watching Ohio closely and I believe the Hawkeye State is on the right track. The voting news is good.

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  4. I was so very, very glad to read that Ohio voters said NO. 😊
    On to November and passage of the abortion rights measure.

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  5. The peel on the Banana Republic keeps getting thicker.

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  6. Politics (the world over) is much more likely to fill me with horror, fear and rage than it is hope these days.

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  7. Good result yesterday! Thank goodness! Some of the stories regarding women’s health in pregnancy are a nightmare. A woman’s right to choose is paramount!

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  8. While I am not sure I followed that completely I certainly understood that a foot is being planted at the top of a steep slippery slope at the bottom of which is some kind of Handmaids Tale, or Taliban State. In the US?! Land of the free and all that.... It beggars belief that all the recitation of Constutional rights and so on can get so completely warped, but then people can twist the Bible or Koran's messages as justification to incite evil, so why not also a secular constitution?

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    1. It's been an assumed superiority of white men since Plymouth Rock. They need to "get it"; get over themselves.

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  9. The GOP can't get majorities of voters to go along with their nonsense, so they will ALWAYS cheat. Relentlessly and without remorse. It's the only way they can stay in power.

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  10. I will never be able to understand how Roe v. Wade was overturned. I am still astounded that it has again been decreed that a woman has no rights when it comes to her own body. Once again, we have been told we are chattel, our wombs the property of...the state? Men?
    Not us.
    I completely agree with what Jennifer said.
    I am so very glad that Ohio did not pass that initiative.

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    1. My daughter texted me as the vote was coming in, "Oh, the irony if it fails by >60%,

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  11. Thank you Ohio for defeating this camel's nose in the tent.

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  12. Voters in Ohio looked pretty charged up to brave the long lines. I read somewhere that a precinct with a college in it voted 98% NO. The young are not having this shit.

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  13. It was good news out of Ohio, thank you! I've been despairing lately and this was a real bright spot.

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  14. They keep on trying, don't them. Thank you Ohio voters.

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  15. Things get complicated. Many changes have been made and things get tangled up.

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    1. I am not quite sure what’s complicated about a woman’s right to her own body. That sounds fundamental, self-evident and non-negotiable to me.

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  16. Being from elsewhere I have no comprehension of the complexities you have written about Joanne but I hope to goodness ‘they’ don’t get away with it.

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  17. I don't understand politics but I know that what is happening in your country is very wrong.

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  18. I get dizzy trying to keep track of how many more ways the United States can slide into mediocrity, injustice and authoritarianism. I really have to stop watching the news. It is depressing.

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  19. fucking republicans. refuse to play fair and then cry foul. I'm glad the Ohio voters turned out. I think there are a few other states trying to get abortion access on the ballot too.

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  20. That’s vote went well! Thankfully!

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  21. They were thwarted, apparently. Good for Ohioans (is that what you are called?).

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  22. Good news. I really do think we are seeing the suicide of the Republican party. They are doing it to themselves. If they abolished the electoral college and instituted one person, one vote, we would not be in this mess. I am convinced of it.

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    Replies
    1. This referendum asked us to dilute our vote. Why would anyone do that?

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