LIMA — Lima Sixth Ward Councilor Derry Glenn held a press conference Tuesday to encourage community members to vote no on Issue 1 in this August’s special election.
Glenn said the ballot initiative, which would require popular referendums in the state of Ohio to attain 60 percent approval to be passed, would be bad for the middle and lower middle class.
“I’m asking everyone to study it over,” he said. “This is not good for us or anyone in the state.”
Glenn said that the issue, if passed, would threaten to make it easier for school funding and the minimum wage to be cut.
Allen County Republicans said earlier this month that passing the issue would make Ohio more similar to how other states amend their constitutions via popular referendum. People on both sides of this issue have asserted that this issue would curtail the influence of special interest groups in proposing amendments.
A representative from Ohio Right to Life said that reducing the ease of amending the constitution via popular will would strengthen the legislative process to change the law, by encouraging debates in the statehouse, but Glenn said that with a statehouse controlled by the Republicans at all three levels, the measure would hurt democracy.
“It’s very important that everybody get out there and get educated on this,” he said. “I’m going out there to get the word out because in my ward, there are a lot of poor people. I’m hoping there is a big turnout on Aug. 8 because I don’t want to see this going through when Ohio is going well just because some guys want to take over.”
Glenn said that he is planning a rally between now and Aug. 8 when the special election takes place.
“We put them in office to support and but now they’re trying to put in Issue 1 to make it easier for them to take away laws that help poor people,” he said. “That’s why they made it a special election because they didn’t think people would turn out. We will continue knocking on doors to let them know it’s very important to vote.”
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
