OHIO ANTI-GERRYMANDERING PETITIONS
You know ... the get rid of Jim Jordan anti-gerrymandering petition drive!
Let’s get a few things straight. Petitions are important. It is how We, The People, can get initiatives on the ballot for an upcoming election.
Right now, Ohio’s lawmakers are representing districts that the state’s highest court has ruled unconstitutional. State Officials (does the name Jim Jordan ring a bell?) do not care if their districts are unconstitutional and that they do not represent the people they are supposed to serve. Their flagrant disregard for the constitution is sickening. The Brennan Center for Justice published a great opinion piece about the lunacy of the Ohio gerrymandered maps. For further information regarding how districts are created, the ACLU explained it all in an article from 2019. Check it out here!
There is good news! According to the Ohio Capitol Journal, “Activists who hope to pass an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Ohio Constitution can now begin gathering the nearly half-million signatures on the need to get the measure on the November 2024 ballot after the amendment was approved as a single issue by the Ohio Ballot Board Thursday.” It will not be an easy feat to get the anti-gerrymandering amendment on next year’s ballot. About 415,000 verified signatures of registered voters need to be gathered to get the initiative on the November 7, 2024, ballot. … And because of a relatively high rate of rejections in previous efforts, they want to gather hundreds of thousands more than that.” I do not think the public realizes the scrutiny petitions go through during the approval process. If they did, they would be more careful when signing petitions for the issues they care about. Every collected signature on every single page on every petition is verified by the Board of Election workers.
Each County’s Board of Elections (BOE) hires temporary workers to verify signatures on every petition initiative in the state. As mentioned in the above article, the rejection rate is high. Answer all information asked of you on the petition completely, and legibly.
Consider this a primer for filling out a Petition, no matter where you live:
1. Are you a REGISTERED VOTER in the County where signatures are being gathered?
a. If you answered NO, stop right there DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION. Your signature will be rejected. Go home and sign the petition in the county where you are a registered voter.
b. If you answered YES, then proceed to #2 …
2. Print your name – and seriously, PRINT your name legibly. Do not make it hard on the BOE workers who are trying to verify who you are.
3. Print your address – Again, print your address legibly. Your address must match the address in your registration file. If you have moved, you need to update your address with the BOE. Now is as good of time as ever to update your registration!
4. Date of Birth – If the petition asks for your Date of Birth, write it down.
5. SIGNATURE – do not skip this line. Your signature will be compared to the signature(s) in your Voter Registration file!
6. DATE – Your signature must contain the date that you signed the petition. If you do not date it, your signature will be rejected.
The moral of the story is to fill out the petition only in the county where you are a registered voter, and then fill it out LEGIBLY and COMPLETELY!