Letter to the editor: HJR1 and SJR1 are undemocratic, unfair, unneeded

Life is not fair. And Ohio’s Legislature is about to make it worse, with passage of House Joint Resolution 1 and Senate Joint Resolution 1 to require citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to receive 60% of votes to be enacted. That is not democracy; that is enshrining minority rule into Ohio’s founding document.

If you are an OSU fan or alum, how would you like for Michigan to be declared the winner of a football game with 20 points, although OSU scored 30 points? That’s what Ohio’s Republican super-majority is proposing. What may be worse, they are proposing to put the issue on an August special election ballot, which traditionally has the lowest voter turnout, costing taxpayers around $20 million. I don’t know about you, but I think Ohio could find better uses for $20 million than trying to enact minority rule in Ohio and making it harder for citizens to initiate change.

Minority rule is only the tip of this terrible “iceberg” of a proposal. Currently, voters proposing a constitutional amendment have to get a certain percentage of signatures in half (44) of Ohio’s 88 counties. This proposal would require them to get the same required percentage in all 88 counties. Such a requirement will assure that only well-heeled corporate interests will ever get a constitutional amendment passed in Ohio, because they will be the only ones with enough cash to be successful.

HJR1 and SJR1 are undemocratic, unfair, unneeded and terribly wasteful of Ohio taxpayers’ money. Let our county’s Republican delegation in the Statehouse − Schuring, Oelslager, Stoltzfus and James − know you are against this plan to undermine democracy and waste taxpayer dollars.

Connie Rubin, Plain Township