YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS | I support Issue 2, but not the motives behind it
I am beginning this column with a statement that will shock many of you: The Republicans who placed Issue 2, an amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would bar noncitizens from voting on the ballot, absolutely did the right thing.
I know some of you will need a moment to recover, so take a deep breath before reading on.Feeling better? Good. Now you may continue.
Of course, they did it for absolutely the wrong reasons.
That does not mean I will not vote for Issue 2. I will because I believe voting is the most significant right and privilege we possess as American citizens. Which explains why so many have given so much through the course of our history to foster and safeguard our right to vote.
George Washington and the founders staged a revolution to establish it; the Civil War was fought to extend it to people who had once been enslaved; Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the women’s suffrage movement waged a 50 year battle to secure it for women; the Greatest Generation went off to World War II to protect it from fascism; Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis put their lives at risk to ensure that every American citizen, regardless of the color of their skin, could cast a ballot; and my Army Ranger son and the nearly 2 million active duty and reserve members of our armed forces have sworn an oath to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
But make no mistake, neither Issue 2 nor the Republicans who drafted and are promoting it can be compared to or mentioned in the same breath as the noble undertakings and American heroes I listed in the previous paragraph.
That is because Issue 2 was not placed on the ballot to blunt a threat to our democracy. No such threat exists. Issue 2 is, in reality, a shameless, cynical, ploy crafted by craven politicians who hope it will vastly increase turnout among election deniers and people who buy into the myth that tens of thousands of noncitizens voted in and thus tainted the 2020 presidential election.
In placing Issue 2 on the ballot, Republicans have created a stalking horse that creates the opportunity for them to raise the specter of illegal immigrants invading our state and stuffing our ballot boxes even though they have no ability to do so. Issue 2 purposely ignores the fact that only U.S. citizens may vote in state and federal elections and that there is no evidence that anyone other than citizens cast ballots. To quote Secretary of State Frank LaRose: “Voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Ohio.”
Unfortunately, the backers of Issue 2 must not have been listening. They seized on the fact that in 2020 officials in Yellow Springs, a small city near Dayton, decided to place a charter amendment that would allow noncitizens to vote on the ballot. When the issue passed, LaRose ruled that it was invalid because noncitizens may neither register nor vote.
Now, two years later, the Yellow Springs affair is being held up as the most serious threat to election integrity in Ohio history, even though no other political subdivision has ever placed a similar issue before or since. That matters little to the sponsors of Issue 2 who claimed it is needed to close a “loophole” in the law that some city, some day, could unleash a torrent of noncitizen voting across the land.
“This is about the integrity of our elections. We are being proactive to ensure our election laws are clear and unambiguous. I haven’t heard from any members of the Ohio House or Ohio Senate who believe noncitizens should be allowed to vote in Ohio elections,” Rep. Jay Edwards, one of Issue 2’s sponsors, said. “In fact, I would suggest most members of the General Assembly, like most Ohioans, agree: Only a citizen of the United States should be able to vote in Ohio elections.”
He is right, which is why only citizens of the United States are able to vote in Ohio. But believe me, the GOP will use the fact that some Democrats opposed Issue 2 not because they think noncitizens should vote, but because they do not believe the Constitution should be amended for purely political reasons.
As I said, I am voting for Issue 2 because I believe only U.S. citizens should have the right to vote. I appreciate and respect that sentiment, but I am repulsed by the motives of those who put Issue 2 on the ballot.
