All meetings are on Thursday, July 10, 2014 in the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
(New)The Judicial Branch and the Administration of Justice Committee will not be meeting, but they are asking committee members to work on proposals for: 1. Judicial Selection and 2. Judicial Elections.
9:00 a.m.
Liaisons with Public Offices Committee – Statehouse Room 114
Public Education and Information Committee – Statehouse Room 114
Coordinating Committee – Statehouse Room 115 – CANCELLED
9:30 – 10:30
Organization and Administration Committee – Statehouse Room 116 -Counsel to the Commission Recommendation and Communications Director Recommendation (note time change)
10:15 a.m.
Constitutional Revisions & Updating Committee – Statehouse Room 115 –Review of the draft Joint Resolution on the Statutory Initiative and Other matters relating to the initiative
Legislative Branch and Executive Branch Committee – Statehouse Room 114 – Discussion on Redistricting and Term Limits
Bill of Rights & Voting Committee – Statehouse Room 311 – Agenda
1:30 p.m.
Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission – Statehouse Room 313.
Agenda
· Recommendation for the Counsel to the Commission (pending report from the Organization and Administration Committee)
· Recommendation for the Communications Director (pending report from the Organization and Administration Committee)
Immediately Following the Commission Meeting or 3:00pm
Education, Public Institutions, & Miscellaneous and Local Government – Statehouse Room 114 – CANCELLED
Finance, Taxation & Economic Development Committee – Statehouse Room 115
(Note that the writer of this blog is not affiliated with the Commission. If you have questions about the meeting, please see the Commission’s web site – http://www.ocmc.ohio.gov/ocmc/home)
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Agenda for Bill of Rights and Voting Rights Committee Meeting
July 10, 2014
The Committee’s meeting is open to the public, and public participation is welcome. The Committee will meet at 9:00am in Room 311 of the Ohio Statehouse.
At this meeting the Bill of Rights and Voting Rights Committee of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission may consider one or more of the following provisions of the Ohio Constitution. The meeting of the Committee is open to the public, and public participation is invited.
Article I – Section 4
BEARING ARMS; STANDING ARMIES; MILITARY POWER.
§4 The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power.
[Note: This section has not been changed since its adoption in the Ohio Constitution of 1851. At its May, 2014 meeting, the Committee voted to recommend retaining this provision in its current form. At its June, 2014 meeting, the Committee again discussed this provision but took action on it.]
Article V – Section 2
BY BALLOT.
§2 All elections shall be by ballot.
[Note: this language was contained in Article IV, Section 2 of the 1802 Ohio Constitution and was retained in Article V, Section 2 of the 1851 Constitution. It has not been changed since 1851. At its June, 2014 meeting, the Committee voted to recommend retention of this provision in its current form.]
Article V – Section 2a
NAMES OF CANDIDATES ON BALLOT.
§2a The names of all candidates for an office at any election shall be arranged in a group under the title of that office. The General Assembly shall provide by law the means by which ballots shall give each candidate’s name reasonably equal position by rotation or other comparable methods to the extent practical and appropriate to the voting procedure used. At any election in which a candidate’s party designation appears on the ballot, the name or designation of each candidate’s party, if any, shall be printed under or after each candidate’s name in less prominent type face than that in which the candidate’s name is printed. An elector may vote for candidates (other than candidates for electors of president and vice-president of the United States, and other than candidates for governor and lieutenant governor) only and in no other way than by indicating his vote for each candidate separately from the indication of his vote for any other candidate.
[Note: this provision was added to the Ohio Constitution in 1949, and it was amended in 1975. At its June, 2014 meeting, the Committee voted to recommend retention of this provision in its current form.]
Article V – Section 7
PRIMARY ELECTIONS.
§7 All nominations for elective state, district, county and municipal offices shall be made at direct primary elections or by petition as provided by law, and provision shall be made by law for a preferential vote for United States senator, but direct primaries shall not be held for the nomination of township officers or for the officers of municipalities of less than two thousand population, unless petitioned for by a majority of the electors of such township or municipality. All delegates from this state to the national conventions of political parties shall be chosen by direct vote of the electors in a manner provided by law. Each candidate for such delegate shall state his first and second choices for the presidency, but the name of no candidate for the presidency shall be so used without his written authority.
[Note: this provision was added to the Ohio Constitution in 1912. At its June, 2014 meeting, the Committee discussed this provision, but took no action regarding it.]
Article V – Section 9
ELIGIBILITY OF OFFICEHOLDERS.
§9 In determining the eligibility of an individual to hold an office in accordance with this article, (A) time spent in an office in fulfillment of a term to which another person was first elected shall not be considered provided that a period of at least four years passed between the time, if any, in which the individual previously held that office, and the time the individual is elected or appointed to fulfill the unexpired term, and (B) a person who is elected to an office in a regularly scheduled general election and resigns prior to the completion of the term for which he or she was elected, shall be considered to have served the full term in that office.
[Note: this provision was added to the Ohio Constitution in 1992. At the recommendation of the Coordinating Committee, the Committee may defer discussion and action on this provision to the Legislative Branch and Executive Branch Committee.]
Article V, Section 4
EXCLUSION FROM THE FRANCHISE
§4 The General Assembly shall have power to exclude from the privilege of voting, or of being eligible to office, any person convicted of a felony.
[Note: this provision was added to the Constitution in 1976. It replaced a provision from the 1851 Constitution that empowered the General Assembly to exclude from the franchise, or from eligibility for public office, “any person convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime.”]
Article V, Section 6
IDIOTS OR INSANE PERSONS
§6 No idiot, or insane person, shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector.
[Note: this provision was included in the Ohio Constitution of 1851.]
