- Early in-person voting ends Sunday. Crucial: check where to vote on Aug. 8
- Ecumenical rally Aug. 2 11 am in Columbus against Issue 1
- Strong turnout in early voting, conflicting polls
Early voting ends Sunday. Tell your community to check if their polling place is open: Ohio voters are making a crucial decision by August 8 on whether to raise the hurdles to adopt constitutional amendments from a simple majority vote to 60%. Many normal polling places will not be open Aug. 8, so please post this link on your social media so people in your networks can find out where to vote if they are waiting till Aug. 8: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/polling-location/
This is really important. The Columbus Dispatch reports that 27 polling places in Franklin County alone, covering over 66,000 voters, will not be open because they are needed for other events.
Early voting ends on Sunday afternoon, rather than Monday, due to new restrictions adopted by the Ohio Legislature last year. People can vote early in person at their county board of elections through Sunday.
Rally Aug. 2 against Issue 1, 11am in the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park downtown Columbus – on the corner of Cleveland Ave and Broad Street , Columbus: The Rev. Jed Dearing, Rector of Trinity, Columbus, forwarded this call to action from the Rev. Tim Ahrens: Wear your robes, your collars, your stoles, bring signs too – whatever you want and stand together to say NO to Issue #1. We will gather for a prayer at 10:55am and then have a 30-minute press conference. Following the press conference, I invite you to go vote and/or hold up signs along Broad Street encouraging others to VOTE NO.
Come and join us! Pass the WORD! Let all the clergy you know in Ohio who want to protect and defend our constitution come and join us next Wednesday!
What does Issue 1 do?
- Increases the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority (50% + 1) to 60%
- Requires signatures from 88 counties, instead of 44
- Removes the signature cure period, meaning if signatures are invalid, the entire process starts over. Currently, petition gatherers have a 10-day window to collect and file more signatures.
As you can imagine, this will make it incredibly difficult for citizen-led ballot measures to pass. The August 8 election is a special election being held for special interests. Our biggest hurdle right now is ensuring voters across the state are both aware of the election and will vote NO.
Strong turnout in early voting, conflicting polls: By July 28, early voting for the Aug. 8 election had already hit 355,483 people, higher than the entire total for the May primary (288,707). A new poll by Ohio Northern University shows supporters of Issue 1 edging opponents (42%-41%), while a Suffolk University poll earlier in July showed Issue 1 losing by 30%. The difference could reflect the fact that the polls framed the question differently and collected data by different methods (internet vs. phone interviews). PLEASE, whatever your views on Issue 1, please vote, and ask every voter in your network to vote. This is a critically important election to voter voice, and it should be decided by as high a proportion of eligible voters as possible.
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
