Lake Erie Bill of Rights Campaign to Continue
A Press Release from Toledoans for Safe Water, from December 11, 2018.
Toledo, OH: At a meeting held on Monday, December 10, to certify the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) to the special election ballot in February, the Lucas County Board of Elections instead received a written protest which will be the subject of a contested hearing on December 20. A Columbus law firm filed the challenge on behalf of Josh Abernathy of 247 Plymouth Street, Toledo, to keep the LEBOR off the ballot. The Columbus firm, McTigue and Colombo LLC has represented corporate, labor and governmental clients in other cities, including Columbus and Bowling Green, in attempts to keep citizen initiatives off ballots.
The basis for the protest is that the Board of Elections and Ohio Supreme Court already decided this matter and the BOE cannot vote on it a second time. However both the BOE and the Ohio Supreme Court decided that another Toledo citizen initiative, “Keep the Jail Downtown”, could not go on the ballot, but Toledo City Council ordered that measure to be placed on the ballot for the February special election, and faced no ballot protest.
Hilary Tore, an organizer with Toledoans for Safe Water (TSW), commented, “Obviously we’re disappointed, but not surprised. This is a trend we see occurring in communities across Ohio working to pass local laws that assert the people’s right to self-govern. We’re not intimidated and we’re not going away. We’ll keep fighting for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights – we have everything to lose if we don’t.” MORE…