Editorial: Husted Must Rewrite State Issue Labels

The Lima News Secretary of State Jon Husted should stick to running fair elections and leave the persuasive writing to us. On Tuesday, Husted’s office released the official titles for the state issues appearing on November’s ballot. Those included some pretty loaded terms, such as “protecting,” “monopoly” and, our favorite, “personal economic benefit.” Let’s see if you can identify any opinions on these labels: State Issue 2: “Anti-monopoly amendment; protests the initiative process from being used for personal economic benefit” State Issue 3: “Grants a monopoly for the commercial production and sale of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes” Much to no one’s surprise, Husted’s creative writing session landed him in a Supreme Court case by Thursday with people who don’t see these issues the way he does. “After receiving public comment, the ballot board and Secretary Husted crafted the language and title with intent to mislead, deceive and defraud the voters,” Andy Douglas, a former Supreme Court justice serving as ResponsibleOhio’s legal counsel, told the Toledo Blade after his organization sued to block the ballot title. They think the language was intentionally crafted to scare voters.