Nosey Online

Reform Ohio Now has taken the first step towards fair elections in the Buckeye state.

Columbus -- A group that hopes voters will embrace fundamental changes in the way Ohio's elections are conducted and financed filed nearly twice the number of signatures needed Tuesday to place the proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

Reform Ohio Now supporters are banking on investment losses at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation and other scandals to fuel voter outrage and provide money and volunteers needed for their campaign.

Spokeswoman Scarlett Bouder said the 521,000 people who signed the petitions show "that over a half-million Ohio voters want to clean up the corruption" that has all but paralyzed state government.

The amendments would: create a nonpartisan commission to approve boundaries for legislative and congressional districts; change campaign finance laws to limit contributions from individuals to $2,000 for statewide candidates and to $1,000 for legislative candidates; and create an independent panel to oversee elections -- duties that are handled by the elected secretary of state.

Of course this would require an end to the Buckeye Republican Musical Chairs^TM, so the GOP won't take this lightly.

Republicans - who control the legislative map-making process and secretary of state's office - are expected to lead the opposition through a new nonprofit group, Ohio First.

Ohio First spokesman David Hopcraft disputed assertions that the measures would increase citizen participation.

"They would take the right to decide elections one step farther from the voters by setting up appointed panels to do the work elected officials should be doing on behalf of their constituents," Hopcraft said.

Wah-wah, boo-hoo.

The proposal to end political gerrymandering calls for an appointed, five-member board to determine the boundaries of legislative and congressional districts. It would replace a system in which the lines are drawn every 10 years by the Ohio Apportionment Board, a panel composed of the governor, auditor, secretary of state and a legislator from each party.

This sounds good to me because no one party should have so much control. Screw Blackwell and the rest of 'em. This should be a much fairer system.