To the editor:

By now everyone has seen the Vote No on Issue 1 signs. But this requires more explanation than a battle to put out the most signs.

In gerrymandering, districts are drawn primarily to favor one party over the other. In 2015 and 2018 Ohio voters went to the polls to amend the constitution to put in place several anti-gerrymandering provisions to make sure that communities, counties, villages, and cities couldn’t needlessly be split.

Issue 1 says that every single district in the state of Ohio must be drawn to either be a Republican district or a Democratic district. The authors of Issue 1 did that because they don’t like what Ohioans put in the constitution in 2015 in 2018.

Issue 1 authors realized that to draw one party majority districts you must drag them out into the suburbs and into the rural areas because that’s the only way you can draw as many single party districts as they want in the state of Ohio. Cities, counties, villages must be split up for political gain.

Issue 1 cannot be challenged at the Ohio Supreme Court. This is a rigged amendment in favor of gerrymandering.

The Commission that Issue 1 would create to draw district maps would be 5 Republicans 5 Democrats and 5 independents selected through a multi-step convoluted process. Once selected they are accountable to nobody.

Ballot Language 8: “Limit the right of Ohio Citizens to freely express their opinions to the members of the commission” The only way a Commission member can be removed is through a vote of their fellow commission members.

There are no checks and balances as to how much money they spend. Under the funding section the legislature is required to allocate a minimum of $7 million. They get to make their budget; they get to pay their consultants exorbitant fees. Ohio taxpayers get to foot the bill and say nothing.

Issue 1 is bankrolled by out-of-state and foreign dark money. 85% of it came from outside of Ohio –55% of that money was from Washington DC. Why does DC care about Ohio? It’s about overturning the will of the people in Ohio. They want to control our legislature and the Ohio congressional delegation.

The people backing this is a group called the 1630 Fund which is funded by a Swiss billionaire. The governor called a special session of the statehouse at the end of May to ban foreign contributions on issues elections, and the law passed. On the day that the governor called the special session the 1630 Fund put $6 million into the Issue 1 campaign spent every penny before that law went into effect.

Ohio has anti-gerrymandering laws the people of Ohio put into the Ohio Constitution. The people of Ohio do not need their congressional delegation and legislature chosen and controlled by Washington DC and foreign power brokers. Vote NO on Issue 1!

John R. Morrow,

Liverpool Township