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Groups file federal suit over charter amendment issues
YOUNGSTOWN
Members of seven Ohio community groups – including Youngstown – filed a federal lawsuit against their county boards of elections and the Ohio secretary of state claiming their constitutional rights were violated over antifracking/safe water charter amendment issues.
The complaint alleges these officials have violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights of freedom of speech, right of assembly, right to petition the government for redress of grievances, right to vote, right of due process and right of self-government.
Besides Youngstown, community members from Toledo and Columbus as well as Portage, Medina, Athens and Meigs counties are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
All of the plaintiffs collected signatures to place initiatives on the ballot between 2015 and 2018. All were blocked at some point from the ballot by the defendants.
In Youngstown, the Mahoning County Board of Elections refused to certify an antifracking charter amendment from a citizens’ group to the May 2018 ballot. The Ohio Supreme Court overruled that decision and ordered the board to put it on the ballot. The same group sought to put the charter amendment on the November 2018 ballot and the board of elections certified it.
An antifracking charter amendment has failed to be approved by city voters eight times going back to 2013. Supporters of the proposal have vowed to continue to put it on the ballot until it passes.
The complaint says that the entire Ohio ballot initiative process is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. It states that election boards have turned away ballot initiatives based on their content, thus usurping the powers of the judicial branch.
“Our government is based on the premise that the people create government to protect their rights and that when government is no longer doing that, the people have the right to alter, reform or abolish that government and form a new one that does,” said Susie Beiersdorfer of Youngstown, one of the plaintiffs. “When the very government that is violating the people’s rights is blocking them from making change, we cannot accept this. We need to challenge it and protect our right to self-govern.”