To the editor:

In a genre rife with dishonesty, the proponents of Issue 1 have outdone themselves. The hastily scheduled election on August 8th is happening solely because of the referendum regarding some safeguarding of reproductive rights that will be on the normal ballot in November. Issue 1 will effectively kill the ability of Ohio’s citizens to amend the state’s constitution, insulating Ohio’s gerrymandered legislative body from the wishes of their constituents. Instead of a simple majority, that has always been the case, Issue 1 will require a 60% threshold for any referendum to pass, and makes it significantly harder to even bring a referendum to a vote. Knowing that they are on the wrong side of the reproductive issue, they are fear mongering on the backs of all their favorite culture war bogeymen. Claiming they are “protecting Ohio’s Constitution against out of state special interests”, they claim that first responder pension funds are at risk, parent’s will lose their rights, schools will be “indoctrinating” their children with all sorts of unsavory topics, 2nd Amendment rights will be at risk, on and on.What they don’t mention is that these “special interest groups” can’t just wish a referendum onto the ballot. The task of collecting all the signatures to qualify to appear on the ballot are already rigorous, and then require a majority to pass. If those standards are met, the constitution should be amended. Given Ohio’s voting history over the last decade, NONE of those bogeyman scare issues will ever make it on a ballot, much less be passed. As I said, their dishonesty knows no bounds when they know they’re on the wrong side of an issue.

Doug Smith

Piqua