{"id":56,"date":"2023-06-10T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/?p=56"},"modified":"2024-06-19T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T16:33:48","slug":"its-democracys-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/2023\/06\/10\/its-democracys-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"IT’S DEMOCRACY’S MOMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This op-ed was originally published in the Toledo Blade<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contemptible voter-suppression mission of the Republican supermajority in the Ohio General Assembly is being met by a praiseworthy reaction from groups devoted to the protection of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most important constitutional question in Ohio for more than a century is set for an Aug. 8 special election, a summer date selected solely to provide minimal voter participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GOP wants to change the threshold required to amend Ohio\u2019s constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent and to make qualification for ballot issues much more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Republicans are confident they can turn out partisans in a low-participation election and enhance their governmental power by diluting citizen authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio Unity Coalition-Toledo unveiled a plan (\u201cOrganizations join to help potential voters acquire state-issued photo ID\u2019s,\u201d Monday) to help voters meet the requirements to participate in the special election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State lawmakers provided legitimacy to Trump campaign inspired claims of voter fraud with a new requirement for a state-issued photo ID or U.S. passport or military ID. For voters without an Ohio driver\u2019s license, the formerly acceptable identification of a utility bill or check stub is no longer enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a cost and hassle factor to obtain birth certificates or social security cards needed to get the photo ID for voting from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NAACP Toledo, Lucas County Commissioner Lisa Sobecki, and local labor leaders with the AFL-CIO and CWA are using the public library system to assist voters who need this service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a significant contribution to wide voter participation that should be a perpetual part of life in Lucas County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Toledo effort should also copy the Democracy Challenge initiated by the Gahanna Foundation in suburban Columbus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High school student volunteers will attend city council meetings in all 15 Franklin County communities, using the public-comment opportunity to explain the voter-participation challenge and ask council for a resolution acknowledging the competition for turnout supremacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the Franklin County students will ask each community council to approve a three paragraph Vow of Democracy that encourages voter participation as the preservation of self-government and justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, the student-driven Democracy Challenge has a strong social-media strategy intended to increase awareness of the Aug. 8 election and make voting a personally defining activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is inspiring to see high school students, many who are too young to vote in August, create an antidote to the anti-democratic strategy of cynical politicians quietly assuming miniscule participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio Unity Coalition-Toledo would be wise to add the Democracy Challenge to their crucially important Aug. 8 special election voter-participation program. Lucas County local governments would show leadership to post the Vow of Democracy on their community internet site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state GOP is literally hoping Ohioans will not rise to the challenge of democracy and protect citizen power on Aug. 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This op-ed was originally published in the Toledo Blade The contemptible voter-suppression mission of the Republican supermajority in the Ohio General Assembly is being met by a praiseworthy reaction from groups devoted to the protection of democracy. The most important constitutional question in Ohio for more than a century is set for an Aug. 8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ohiounity.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}