Elections are strange beasts. We love and hate them at the same time. The ads are smothering us, yet we can’t get enough of the latest polls on who is up and who is down. The candidates make wild statements and dubious allegations against their opponents in grainy black and white videos when there are high definition cameras now. Ah, fall: college football, fresh air, crispy leaves, and politics. What would we do otherwise?

You may have heard about Ohio’s Issue 1. Are you as unclear about it as everyone else? You are not alone.

As Ohioans go to the polls, we will indeed see this proposed Constitutional Amendment on our ballots—Issue 1—which asks voters to amend the Ohio Constitution to reform the state’s criminal justice system.

If you would like Buckeye’s analysis, it is:

The Buckeye Institute is deeply troubled by any efforts to use our state’s Constitution as a vehicle to pass regular laws—something that should be left to the Ohio General Assembly in its proper role. On principle, we advise treading very carefully with any ballot issue that would amend Ohio’s Constitution—regardless of whether the policy contained in the amendment is good or bad. That concern is our first and most important assessment of Issue 1.

Do you remember the catchy song, “I’m just a Bill” from Schoolhouse Rock? It is referring to U.S. Congress and the President instead of our state legislature and Governor, but the idea is the same: policy choices like this one are best left to be passed into laws the old-fashioned way, not ensconced directly into our Constitution.

Watch the delightfully upbeat classic three-minute Schoolhouse Rock video if you would like to get nostalgic about what was so great about the late 1970s/early 1980s educational programming.

The Buckeye Institute’s legal fellow Daniel Dew wrote a longer piece addressing some of the policy matters contained in Issue 1, which we encourage you to read if you would like a deeper dive.

In Issue 1: Paved with Good Intentions, Dew writes, “We agree with many of Issue 1’s policy objectives, but we worry about the hidden, unintended consequences of using the constitutional amendment vehicle to pursue them. Among other things, Issue 1 proposes complex criminal sentencing reform—a notoriously difficult and thorny issue that historically requires changes, tweaks, and tinkerings to get right and keep pace with social norms and the criminal code.”

Among those unintended consequences:

• Issue 1 may prevent drug courts from using swift and certain sanctions to help those suffering from addiction stay on the path to recovery;
• Issue 1 would likely result in more people suffering from addiction being charged for drug “trafficking” rather than possession; and
• Issue 1 could jeopardize the right to defense for indigent people, which is tied to the possibility of incarceration.

Changes to such complex criminal justice reform issues are more appropriately implemented by the Ohio legislature where unintended consequences can be dealt with quickly and without the need for another multi-million-dollar statewide campaign to change Ohio’s Constitution yet again.

Happy Voting and Happy Halloween!

Here’s hoping your candy isn’t stale and your kids pass out from the combination of light exercise and sugar overdose. Does anyone else take a really small (barely noticeable) candy tax from their kids’ single-night haul after they are tucked into bed? No? Just us?

#BadParentsUniteforFairCandyPayToday

#AfterAllWeBroughtYouIntoTheWorld

#WhatIsOneMissingMilkyWayToYouAnyway?

Rebekah Alt is the chief external affairs officer at The Buckeye Institute.