In this issue:
- Tools to clear up voters’ confusion over Issue 1 and new voting rules, with sample social media post
- Aug. 2, Cincinnati City Council Meeting: advocate to fund affordable housing
- Cincinnati Gun Violence Prevention Coalition meeting second Mondays – tell us of similar work in your city
- Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, By America: inviting you to a book study
Publicize Issue 1 Forum July 20, 7 pm: Three of Ohio’s major newspapers are teaming up to host a half-hour forum July 20 on Spectrum News. The panelists will be Issue 1 supporter Rep. Jim Hoops (R-Napoleon) and Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Artlington).
The Aug. 8 special election will determine the rules for amending Ohio’s constitution, including this November’s likely vote on reproductive rights and future votes on proposals like making redistricting nonpartisan.
A yes vote on Issue 1 would raise the required minimum vote from current law – a simple majority – to 60% to pass a constitutional amendment. It would also set a much more logistically challenging task to qualify a measure for the ballot, requiring all 88 counties to produce valid signatures totaling 5% of the votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election. The recording will be on the website of the Columbus Dispatch after that – II’ll share the link as soon as I get it.
Help clear up confusion about August 8 Special Election: Based on threads I’ve seen on NextDoor and conversations in the community, many people don’t understand what Issue 1 will change if it passes. ID requirements and the process for requesting an absentee ballot has already changed since our last election. This is confusing voters also.
Ads from both sides are hitting the media, and you can help fellow voters navigate this by using your social media to share this graphic.
Sample message for your church social media:
The August 8 Special Election will determine how Ohio citizens can amend their constitution. This graphic explains what a “yes” vote would do and what a “no” vote means, with examples of the kinds of programs for which Ohioans have passed constitutional amendments, including public works, schools, and economic development. Early in-person voting is now underway at the County Board of Election and voters can request an absentee ballot at your Board of Elections or by mail through Aug. 1. There are new rules and forms for requesting an absentee ballot. See how at this link.
Please talk to people who trust you about why the outcome of the Special Election matters to you. Visit last week’s Advocacy Update for information on how to sign up as a poll worker, poll monitor, or election protection ambassador.
Aug. 2: Cincinnatians, attend City Council meeting to advocate for funding for affordable housing. Arrive by 12:30 pm. 1 in 3 Cincinnatians cannot afford market-rate housing, a crisis members of most Cincinnati Episcopal congregations have witnessed personally as volunteers in family shelter ministries where two-thirds of the guests are children. As rents have soared over the past year, available shelter space can only take in a fraction of the Cincinnatians enduring homelessness.
Advocates including many Episcopalians have collected over 12,000 signatures, enough to put a measure on the November ballot to restore the city’s earned income tax to the 2020 level and use the revenue to fund housing development with truly affordable rents. This measure will cost most households less than $11 a month but generate $40-$50 million a year for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
We are asking City Council to vote Aug. 2 to put the ballot measure in November. If Council does, and the measure passes in November, the new funding will start in January, 2024. If City Councl does not endorse the ballot measure, it will have to appear on two successive election ballots and pass both. In that situation, the funding could not start to be collected and used until January of 2025 at the earliest.
Cincinnati Gun Violence Prevention Coalition meets second Mondays at 1 pm : This vibrant grassroots group, co-led by L. Francisco of Amnesty International and Alyson Gerwe of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, is now meeting monthly by Zoom.
- If you live in Greater Cincinnati and want to join this group, email Alyson to be added to the list. The next meeting is August 14 at 1 pm.
- If you are part of a similar coalition ion in another Ohio city and can help fellow Episcopalians join it, please email me and I will help you get the word out.
The Cincinnati Coalition meeting on July 10 drew a wide group including faith leaders, police officers, volunteers, and social service providers. They reviewed the big public policy struggle between Ohio’s law preempting local gun safety ordinances and cities including Cincinnati and Columbus, which are struggling to reduce the carnage caused by gun violence. This has a horrifying impact on youth, including Shamari Mingo, the 18 year old niece of anti-violence leader Rev. Peterson Mingo, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Cincinnati at the beginning of July.
The July 10 Zoom call was an incredibly constructive example of people sharing real-time information and brainstorming ways to reduce the city’s gun violence, The participants in the call discussed the problem of gun thefts from cars, why people feel the need to have weapons for self-defense, and how advocates can promote safe gun storage and distribute trigger locks and gun lockers at car shows and other community events.
Matthew Desmond’s New Book! Anyone up for a book study? The sociologist and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Evicted has just published a new book, Poverty, By America which exposes the policies and practices which keep millions of our neighbors trapped in poverty while subsidizing those of us who are already wealthy. The book is now #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Desmond, the son of a pastor, endured poverty as a child. His family’s home was repossessed by the bank. He gave a compelling speech at Christ Church Cathedral about the dynamics behind America’s eviction epidemic a few years ago.
In his new work he outlines policies like the pandemic era universal Child Tax Credit that can lift Americans out of poverty at very little cost to the rest of us, and invites us to become poverty abolitionists. This certainly fits our Baptismal vows and the work of Becoming Beloved Community. Desmond was interviewed together with novelist Andrew Dubus III by the reporting team of WBUR’s Here and Now, which aired clips from the town hall on July 13. If you’d like to be part of a discussion of this book and its implications for our advocacy, please email me.
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
