Dear Editor,

I didn’t pay much attention to this Issue One business until the literature about it was in the paper this morning. Actually, I didn’t even realize that we were having a special election in August. I just assumed when I saw the signs for and against it that it was going to be on the ballot in November. It sounds like the Republican/Conservative position is to vote “yes”.

And from what I have researched and read today, I agree with the idea that a 60% vote be required to change the Ohio Constitution. The Constitution isn’t something that in my opinion should be changed so easily. That’s how the United States Constitution is. It requires a supermajority. And it hasn’t been amended in 31 years.

But it seems like we vote on amendments to the Ohio Constitution every other election and nobody even knows what they are actually for most of the time. We just vote how we’re “supposed to” based on our political affiliation. So in principle I agree with Issue One. However, for two reasons I am going to vote “no”.

First, it seems to me awfully fishy and probably for corrupt reasons (like a lot of things in Ohio politics) that we are having a statewide special election in August with only one item to be voted on. Why are we wasting what I am sure is millions of dollars on a special election when the general election is three months away?

Second, it seems totally illogical to me that only a 50% simple majority vote is required to pass an amendment to the Ohio Constitution when the amendment’s purpose is to require a 60% supermajority vote to pass future amendments to the same Constitution. If our lawmakers had any sense and were doing this for the right reason they would have included a clause that said something along the lines of “This amendment shall not pass unless 60% of the electorate votes ‘yes’.”

So even though I might agree with the concept, I’m voting against Issue One because it just doesn’t pass the smell test to me.

Nick Ferrelli

Shadyside