Reforming Ohio

I’ve been reading a little bit about the effort to reform politics in Ohio and I must say, I think these are terrific ideas. I mention this here because I know that there are several people reading this who also live in Ohio, and I want to encourage you all to go vote “Yes” on Issues 2, 3, 4, and 5 come election day.

What blows my mind about this whole thing is that it seems some conservative religious groups are mobilizing to oppose these issues. I really don’t get that at all, since it’s basically sending a message saying “We don’t care about democracy.” Then again, those groups mostly seem to be affiliated with the so-called “Ohio Restoration Project,” which mostly seems to be an attempt to foist their ‘moral’ values on the rest of us whether or not we agree with them. I find them, on the whole, quite disgusting, and am hoping that their pawn Blackwell is soundly defeated—I know I’ll be voting against him whenever the opportunity presents itself, since I hold him directly responsible for a lot of the voting screwups last year.

From what I see, all of the issues they are running are excellent ideas. Point by point:

Issue 2: Makes it easier to vote by allowing all Ohioans to vote by mail

Sounds like a great idea to me, and from what I’ve read it seems to work very well in Oregon. It would also help to reduce some of the problems we saw last year with excessively long lines at polling stations.

Issue 3: Helps stop the influence of big money in elections by greatly reducing campaign contributions.

Again, seems like a great idea to me. There’s no reason why corporate interests or wealthy donors should have excessive amounts of influence over anyone else—and as election 2004 demonstrated, you can still raise plenty of money through the grassroots.

Issue 4: Stops the politicians from drawing their own legislative districts and puts an Independent Commission in charge of this process.

Sounds reasonable to me. Maybe then we’ll actually have competitive elections, instead of heavily gerrymandered districts designed to allow incumbents on both sides of the aisle to maintain a death grip on their seats.

Issue 5: Places a bi-partisan Board of Supervisors in charge of Ohio’s elections, instead of a partisan official who backs candidates and takes sides in elections.

This is a terrific idea eliminating the tremendous conflict of interest of elected, presumably ideologically-driven officials of either party overseeing the election process putting them in office in the first place.

Of course, I can see why certain conservatives wouldn’t like some of this, since the Republicans have had a death grip on power in this state for the past 15 or 20 years (and look at the dog’s breakfast they’ve made of it, too). But then again, if the majority of citizens in Ohio actually agree with a conservative ‘moral’ agenda, then they should have nothing to fear. If not, then perhaps they should accept that we live in a secular nation organized on the principle of majority rule, and quit trying to shove their ‘values’ down everyone else’s throats.

This post may offend some readers. If you’re one of them, I suggest not reading the politics category.