Victory! Brecksville Citizens Petition - Sec of State's decision

Our non-partisan group, Brecksville Citizens for Transparent Politics initiated a petition drive in July 2012.  Our aim was to gather enough signatures to get our petition on the November 2012 ballot.  In 2 1/2 weeks we collected 1,055 valid signatures.  (for more information see my earlier post) 

Our petition set forth the principals  that "corporations are not people" and "money is not speech".  To that end we created a vehicle that would allow our city to hold a town hall meeting once every 2 years the focus of which would be the effect of money on our politics.  We envisioned an educational process in which citizens could gather, give their opinions and we would also hear from our city leaders on this topic.  A full text of our petition can be found at our facebook page:  move to amend- brecksville & at movetoamend.org.  I've uploaded a copy of the SOS decision.

The City of Brecksville filed a protest against our petition.  We had a hearing at the Board of Elections which ended in a tie vote.  The Sec of State, John Husted, today, voted in support of our right to have this issue on the November ballot., breaking the tie in our favor. It's a great victory for our freedom of speech and the rights of the citizens of Brecksville to have their voices heard.

We are asking our fellow Brecksville citizens to call the mayor & council requesting the following: 

 1)  we don't want the city to waste our taxpayor dollars on the cost of the appeal  2)  we want the city to let the people decide the issue on the November ballot  3)  we want the city to stop BLOCKING democracy in Brecksville!  4)  Republican Ohio Secretary of State, John Husted, agrees that the petition is constitutional and legal. (see Husted letter last paragraph on p 2)

link to city website:  http://www.brecksville.oh.us/city_info/contact.html

We have all seen the horrible effects of the 2010 Citizens United decision which unleashed a deluge of dark money into our politics.  Our democracy was not created to be bought by special interests with unlimited money.  Our democracy is for "The People" and as such we should be the voices heard, not those of corporations both domestic & foreign,  unions, PACS & Super-PACS.  "The Peoples"  impact on the electoral process has been reduced by the Citizens United decision.  When politicians are receiving huge donations from special interests who will they listen to?  The voters or those buying their election?

Please support our effort to have this issue pass in November!!  If  you would like to help, please contact me at:  brecksville@movetoamend.org