Polls are open for early voting for the August special election.
Precious Grundy | The Lima News
LIMA — Ohio is just days away from the results of the August special election. Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima joined the Allen County Republican party to discuss the election Friday afternoon. Huffman discussed voting early before the official Election Day comes.
“Back when we just started having early voting I was one of the folks that said I’m never going to do that, I will vote on Election Day,” Huffman said. “We have greatly disadvantaged ourselves in the Republican party by doing that, the simple reason is logistics.”
Huffman also shared there was an election in New York City on the day the twin towers were struck in 2001.
“There was a lot of people who did not go vote,” Huffman said. “The votes that were already in were counted. I’m not suggesting there will be a tragedy but people simply forget and get busy.”
Early voting for the election began on July 11 for the special election.
“What we see is a really even vote now, probably about 45% (for) and 45% (against), with about 10% undecided,” Huffman said. “This is very much going to be a turnout-type election. It’s really important for folks who believe in protecting our Constitution to get out and vote Yes, next Tuesday. You don’t have to wait till next Tuesday to vote, you can do that now.”
If adopted, Issue 1 will raise the threshold for future ballot initiatives to change the constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Issue 1 would also require citizen-led ballot initiatives to gather signatures from all 88 counties rather than the current 44 required.
“The U.S. Constitution requires two-thirds of the House and Senate to even propose an amendment,” Huffman said. “And of course, 75% of the states have to approve it. Many states don’t even have a process where you can put in a constitutional change on the ballot. In fact, 33 states don’t even allow that. So really, the 60% is a pretty modest proposal, a lot of other states already have it — if a large part of the public is in favor of a particular issue, then it should go in the Constitution. If it is an issue that may be the passion of the day and is heavily funded, without another side, being able to get the opposite message out. Those are the kinds of things we end up regretting.”
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8 until 7:30 p.m. For more information visit the Allen County Board of Elections website at allen.boe.ohio.gov.
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
