MOUNT VERNON — Two groups are working to meet a June 30 deadline for collecting enough signatures to place two constitutional amendments on the November ballot. Both amendments work to reassert the sovereignty of Ohioans over the federal government.
amendments at a glance
Health Care Freedom amendment:
Ohio Sovereignty amendment:
The Ohio Liberty Council and The Peoples Constitution Coalition of Ohio are volunteer-led, grassroots campaigns that seek to collect the 402,275 signatures needed.
The Health Care Freedom amendment is sponsored by the OLC.
“The Health Care Freedom amendment will make it so that in Ohio, you cannot be forced to purchase health insurance,” said Jason Mihalick of The Ohio Liberty Council. “You cannot be taxed for purchasing or not purchasing health care.”
Essentially, he said, the amendment keeps everything as it was before the federal health care law was passed in March.
“It’s all about not forcing people to purchase the health care,” continued Mihalick, a Gambier resident. “If we allow that precedent to be set, where else can the federal government go? So that’s kind of our line in the sand.”
A constitutional amendment, he said, is the “most powerful way to pass this kind of law.”
“There are other options,” he said. “We could have worked with the state Legislature, but we have a speaker, Armand Budish, who will not allow issues like this to come to the floor of the House. There were existing bills, but they were not permitted to come to a hearing. So when the federal health care was passed, we looked at our options.”
On April 9, the Ohio Ballot Board rejected the Health Care Freedom amendment, stating the OLC had to resubmit the measure as two separate amendments. On April 29, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed that ruling, and allowed the initiative to proceed as a single amendment.
“We officially started collecting signatures May 1,” said Mihalick. “It’s taken us a good three weeks to get organized. Since Memorial Day, we’ve collected 20,000 to 30,000 signatures a week.”
Mihalick said the group will continue collecting signatures in July and August.
“While the counties are verifying the signatures [collected by June 30,] there are two to three months during that window of time where you can continue gathering signatures,” he said. “If the counties say there are not enough signatures, you have 10-day period to submit additional signatures or make corrections.”
Michael Young, Mount Vernon resident and PCCOH committee member, does not have an exact count of signatures collected thus far for the Ohio sovereignty amendment. If the group does not meet the deadline, however, that is no cause for alarm.
“We’re undermanned,” he said. “We felt three to four months ago this might happen, and if it did, we’ve been planning that we would shoot for November of next year. But it may still work out.”
Young said the sovereignty amendment differs from the health care amendment in that it is broader in scope.
“The health care amendment focuses on a few narrow aspects of the health care bill,” he said. “Our amendment is all inclusive. Not only would it address particular parts of the health care bill, it would prevent any encroachment of the federal government on the citizens of Ohio.”
Even if the 402,275 signatures were collected in time, Young said the group is not sure if the next three to four months is enough time to educate the public about the amendment and why it’s important.
“We want to start implementing PCCOH groups in each county,” he said. “The emphasis will be on education and activism. Education on the constitution, American system of government, and law. Activism in terms of supporting our cause.
“We want to form a committed PCCOH group here in Knox County,” he added. “We’ll be teaching about the Ohio and U.S. Constitution, and how they work together.”
Anyone interested can e-mail Young at committee@pccoh.com.
