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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Cincinnati

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have one-on-one conversations with voters to determine their level of support or opposition, which is entered in a database.

Supporters are targeted in later get-outthe-vote efforts and are asked to be campaign volunteers.

Persuasive messages are sent to undecided voters, which is the group Mize hopes to be the most effective with.

He said volunteers will ask if voters think discrimination against LGBT people is wrong, and if so, would they vote to affirm the human rights ordinance that council passed on March 15.

The new measure restored "sexual orientation" and added "transgendered status" to an ordinance passed in 1993 barring discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

216.623.2800

April 28, 2006

Gays and lesbians were removed from the original ordinance after Equal Rights Not Special Rights, led by Phil Burress of suburban Sharonville, got Article 12 passed that year.

The same group is now campaigning to repeal the new measure.

Mize said he is disappointed that once again Cincinnati voters need to be convinced that discrimination is wrong, but welcomes another opportunity for fair-minded community organizers to unite around the issue.

"This is another opportunity to empower us," said Mize. "It makes us stronger as we talk to even more people. This is the third opportunity for us to talk about our lives and listen to the community's concerns. If we work as hard in 2006 as we did in 2004, we will win."

Paid petitioners' names concealed

Equal Rights Not Special Rights delivered 1,592 petition forms to the city's finance

office on April 14, just before the 30 day deadline was up.

According to their count, the forms contain "over 14,000" signatures.

The forms were sent to the Hamilton County Board of Elections on April 24 for signature verification, after a ten-day public inspection period.

ERNSR needs 7,654 signatures of Cincinnati registered voters-10% of the city's votes in the 2002 gubernatorial election to put the measure on the ballot.

Ohio law requires that petition circulators "file an itemized statement, made under penalty of election falsification, showing in detail" money or things of value paid for circulating petitions, "full names and addresses of all persons to whom such payments or promises were made," and "names and addresses of anyone who contributed anything of value to be used in circulating such petitions."

That statement, according to law, has to be filed within five days of the petitions. ERNSR instead filed a statement April 19

Cleveland

Public

Library

WE'RE LISTENING

Patrons of Cleveland Public Library!

www.cpl.org

You talked. We listened. We've heard you. Take a look at these improvements to Cleveland Public Library services bringing top-notched programs and services where you live, work and raise your families. Your lifelong learning experiences are enhanced due to your support of ISSUE 2 in May 2003. Thank you!

WE'RE OPEN SATURDAYS! We completed Phase II of opening neighborhood Branches on Saturdays during the year. total of 25 Branches are now open each Saturday with convenient hours!

A

SERVICES FOR YOUNG ADULTS. We launched the debut issue of The Voice, a quarterly Information Source for Cleveland Teens. And, we opened a pilot TEEN CENTER at the Collinwood Branch.

SERVICES FOR SENIOR CITIZENS. We expanded adaptive equipment for older patrons with special needs and reestablished LIVE LONG & LIKE IT! specializing in programs and services for Cleveland's older adults.

COMPUTERS AND COMPUTER TRAINING. We introduced more

computer-training classes at the Main. Library and all Branches with special emphasis for Seniors, young adults and foreign language instruction.

HISPANICS and NEW AMERICANS. We now have new and expanded programs and services for the Hispanic community as well as tending to innovative library service for other new Americans through the effective CPL New Americans Committee.

To learn more about other programs and services CPL has to offer, visit our website at www.cpl.org, or better still, visit a Branch near you and see what we're doing.

THE PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY

Equal Rights Not Special Rights claims a First Amendment right to withhold circulator information.

saying that $40,000 was spent, then claiming a First Amendment right not to disclose the rest of the information.

That statement was signed by David Miller, who is acting as ERNSR's agent. He is also vice president of Citizens for Community Values, another of Burress' anti-gay organizations.

Miller claims that a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, says he does not have to report the rest of the information.

The Buckley decision, even among justices in the majority, however, offers differing opinions on this.

The decision struck parts of a Colorado law on petition signature gatherers, banning some payments to them and requiring they wear badges identifying them as “paid" or "volunteer." It said that petition circulation is "core political speech" for which First Amendment protection is "at its zenith."

But the ruling also upheld an earlier decision saying "there must be some substantial regulation of elections if they are to be fair and honest and if some sort of order... is to accompany the democratic process."

On the issue of paid circulator disclosure, the court said that what is important to the state's interest in election integrity is "the payor, not the payees," and "the added benefit of revealing the names of paid circulators and amounts paid to each circulator . . . has not been demonstrated."

However, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer, who were in the majority, offered a separate opinion that disagrees on the specific provision ERNSR is using.

"Most disturbing is the court's holding that Colorado's disclosure provisions are partially unconstitutional," wrote O'Connor, calling the disclosure provision a “reasonable regulation of the electoral process."

Funding sources hidden

CRF co-chair Gary Wright said this is just the latest attempt by Burress to hide campaign information that the public has the right to know.

Wright and former Cincinnati mayor Bobbi Sterne filed an elections complaint last year against Burress and his enterprises, accusing them of laundering approximately $3 million through Citizens for Community Values Action, a related nonprofit, to conceal the contributors to Burress' 2004 campaigns to defend Article 12 and pass an Ohio constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The Ohio Elections Commission took no action.

The statewide amendment campaign made no First Amendment claim to keep secret the names of the paid signature gatherers or how much they were paid. That information was written right on the petition forms.

Wright said his group has not yet decided whether or not to file a complaint on the latest petition.

Philip J. Keith

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May 6, 2006, at St. Mary Catholic Church, 103 North Maple Street in Orwell, Ohio, with Reverend Gregory F. Fedor officiating. There will be a gathering for family and friends from 10 a.m. until the time of service at the church on Saturday. A celebration meal will be held at the community service after Mass.

Phil is missed at several levels by those fortunate enough to have spent quality time with him over the years. As the saying goes, "The gift of Phil's life can never be taken from us"-the truth of this provides comfort to those left behind.