Democracy ▼
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What's On the Carroll County, OH ballot in the next election?
What's On the Carroll County, OH ballot in the next election?
Websites
The internet is full of useful websites to help you navigate the next election. Here are our favorites.
BallotPedia.org
Sample Ballot LookupA useful tool that does not require and email address. Just type in any street address to see who's on the ballot for that address.
VoteSaveAmerica
"Be a Voter" ToolAnother address based ballot tool, shows every local candidate and who has endorsed them.
BallotReady.org/oh
View who's on the ballot in Ohio, or any address. Powers voter info tools for many other websites.
See also Election Guides for Ohio
Generative AI Prompts
If I live in Carroll County, OH, when is the next federal, state, county, or local election? What is on the ballot? Provide links to information for Carroll County, OH.
Try this prompt on:
Perplexity.ai Google Gemini ChatGPT4Claude.ai -
Is Ohio Gerrymandered? Who Draws The Voting Districts in Ohio?
Is Ohio Gerrymandered? Who Draws The Voting Districts in Ohio?
Ohio Information on Redistricting From High-Quality Voter Information Sites
Here are some key, reliable sources on the internet to see how congressional districts changed after the 2020 census redistricting.
Ballotopedia: Redistricting in Ohio after the 2020 Census
the National Council of State Legislatures
Ballotopedia has excellent redistricting resources so we won't repeat then here, except to link to information they have about Ohio.
Five-thirty-eight: has a before and after redistricting map for Ohio
What is Gerrymandering?
The maps are in and redistricting is underway.
Redistricting can either strengthen or weaken the power of a party in the state overall.
The two most common practices are “packing” and “cracking” where voters of a particular party are either lumped together into a single district (packing) or split into an ineffective minority across several districts (cracking).
Gerrymandering is the practice of taking this to an extreme.
Some states have independent redistricting commissions with the aim of ending partisan gerrymandering,
Arizona, California, Michigan, Colorado, and others
And other states have partisan maps drawn by the party in power in the state legislature, gerrymandered to favor the party in power that got to draw the map:
Texas, Arizona, Illinois and others
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How to Report Consumer Fraud in Ohio
How to Report Consumer Fraud in Ohio
In most states, consumers have a right to report consumer fraud to the state's attorney general. The attorney general is responsible for the following three things:
1. Enforcing the state's laws.
2. Protecting the state's residents from criminal activity.
3. Making efforts to stop criminal activity when reported.
To report consumer fraud in Ohio, use the Ohio's hotline at OH.gov's File a Complaint page.
Phone Number: Toll-free: 800-282-0515, Local: 614-466-4986
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How to help the Ohio Attorney General stop consumer fraud by reporting it
Individual consumers play an essential role in enforcing consumer protection laws. Criminals and fraudsters are free to prosper if you don't report suspicious or abusive consumer activity. Only when we report this kind of activity can we provide the evidence the attorney general needs to take action to stop this actvity.
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Federal government websites
The federal government is also charged with protecting consumers. The following agencies can help you with complaints.
How to contact federal government agencies
Consumer Products and Safety
- Consumer Complaints. Learn where to report your consumer complaint and find contact information to file.
- International Complaints. File an official report online to complain about an international e-commerce transaction.
- Cosmetics. Call or write to report adverse reactions to the Food and Drug Administration.
- Foodborne Illness and Food Product Complaints. Call to file a complaint.
- Postal Service. Email your questions about the U.S. mail or other postal services to the U.S. Postal Service.
- Meat and Poultry Hotline. Call to talk to the food safety education staff (available in English and Spanish).
- Report Animal Drug Reactions or Animal Feed/Pet Food Complaints. FDA encourages veterinarians and animal owners to report adverse drug reactions and medical product failures.
- Telephone Service Complaints. File a complaint with the FCC about your telephone service if you have concerns about inaccurate billing, false advertisement, scams, or other issues.
- Unsafe Products. Email a report of an injury, or file a complaint about a product to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
- Unsafe Vehicle. Email or call to report an unsafe vehicle.
Fraud, Law Enforcement, and Crime
- Antitrust Violations. Email, call, or mail a report of a possible antitrust violation or potential anti-competitive activity, whether civil or criminal, to the Department of Justice.
- Arson, Bombs, Firearms, Tobacco, or Other Related Criminal Activities. Call to report arson, bomb, firearms, or tobacco related criminal activity.
- Asset Forfeiture. Email a question or comment about asset forfeiture and auctions.
- Community Oriented Policing. Email or call for information on grants and training programs.
- Consumer Fraud. Email your complaints to the Federal Trade Commission.
- Crime Victims. Email or call for crime victims' support and assistance.
- Domestic Violence Hotline. Email or call for crisis intervention, information about domestic violence and referrals to local service providers to victims of domestic violence and those calling on their behalf. Services are available in English and Spanish.
- Fraud and Waste in Government. Email, call, fax, or mail reports of government fraud and waste to the Federal Inspectors General.
- Homeland Security Department. Look-up emails and telephone numbers, mailing addresses, help desk support for web applications, instructions on how to report incidents and more.
- Identity Theft. Email your complaint.
- Immigration and Naturalization. Call for information about immigration and naturalization assistance (provided in English and Spanish).
- Immigration and Naturalization Local Offices. Call, write, or visit a local office to find the status of your case.
- Internet Fraud (Civil or Criminal). Email reports of suspected fraud to the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center.
- Medicare Fraud. Report Medicare fraud and abuse.
- Nuclear Facilities. Email or call to report any safety or security concern involving a nuclear reactor, nuclear fuel facility or radioactive materials.
- Religious Discrimination. File a complaint if you've experienced religious discrimination or violation of religious liberty rights.
- Terrorist Activity. Email leads to the FBI online, or call your local FBI Field Office.
- Victim's Rights, Services, and Criminal and Juvenile Justice. Call for information and referrals.
- Violence Against Women and Family Violence. Email your questions about laws, regulations, grants, and other resources.
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What is Democracy?
What is Democracy?
Democracy is the Enlightenment idea, that the authority of government derives from "the consent of the governed" -- and NOT from any "divine right" from "God."
Royalty had always asserted that God was source of legitimate authority.
But to the Enlightenment era founders -- to the extent they agreed there was a God -- viewed it as a God that bestowed the right of Liberty on everyone, not Authority on one.
And therefore, the only legitimate form of government, is one where those "endowed with Liberty" that God gave them, give up some of that liberty to be controlled (i.e. "governed") by a government that "the governed" (the people) create and control.
(See Heather Cox Richardson, Why Does Democracy Matter?)
Not a new idea. But a fragile one
Hence, this is how we get "civilized". Some organization is necessary to make and coordinate roads, water systems, sewers, libraries, schools, public transit, public safety....
And so we give up some liberty, pay taxes, and assessments, etc. for the convenience of collective action (e.g. making a town water system.)
But we can't let power get out of control.
We can't let those in power ignore the result of elections, for example.
The Enlightenment idea of Democracy, borrowed from the ancient Greeks, was the inspiration for the form of government we have in America today.
In a democracy, the power of the government exists and is granted power only by the consent of the people it governs.
The Constitution: The Blueprint for Our Democracy
The Constitution is the document that establishes and defines ("frames") the extent of government power, and establishes the framework of how it operates:
- (via elected legislators (legislatures, assemblies,town boards) who create codes and laws and statutes,
- courts (that make sure the law is followed and rule on ambiguous laws, and create case law ), and
- via elected executives (governor, president, mayor, etc, who is charged with carrying out the laws of the jurisdiction (i.e. "executing" the laws and policies that have been created by the legislature, and create agencies that make regulations )
But, the power of our government ultimately begins and ends at the ballot box
When the Constitution was passed, most states only allowed white male landowners to vote. Nobody else had the right to vote. Renters, workers who didn’t own land, could not vote.
Then the 15th amendment extended the vote to Black men after the civil war. Women still could not vote.
In the 1800’s the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution did not give women a right to vote by virtue of their citizenship.
There are still today those who argue that the Constitution doesn’t necessarily guarantee a right to vote to anyone.
You can deny the vote to someone for any reason but race or sex.
‘As long as those rules aren’t violated, governments can deny the right to vote for whatever reason they want, pretty much.
Indeed, in the this term of the Supreme Court, the Court will hear a case on whether State Legislatures have absolute unfettered right to to create arbitrary rules about who gets to vote and who doesn’t. Or whether there’s even a right to vote at all. Should be an interesting case.
That is Democracy
Whether it's representative democracy or direct democracy, it's all ultimately dependent on voting for its legitimacy.
And if that vote is not free and fair, then the legitimacy of the government itself is undermined.
But if an election is open and fair and certified and one side refuses to accept the results, then democracy is over.
Republicans are increasingly saying that they will not honor election results if they don’t win.
If that happens, and the public does not rebel, then democracy is over.
We may be perilously close to seeing an end to American democracy in our lifetimes if election denialism (the new religion of the Republican Party) becomes the norm.
Without voting, and honoring election results, there is no democracy
Since democracy is about consent of the governed, it's important that ALL of the governed who are affected by that government get a right to vote on those who govern them. If that vote is denied, democracy suffers and...
Voting is under attack today...
There are those who would like to suppress your right to vote so they can remain in power.
This site is dedicated to fighting anti-democratic forces that are threatening the enlightenment ideal that this nation was founded on.
Democracy is too important an idea to just let it be stolen from us by powerful forces who find oversight of them inconvenient.
This site is dedicated to keeping America free, and government transparent, accountable, and free of corruption.
And that can only happen if we end gerrymandering and stop voter suppression.
PRESERVE and EXERCISE your right to VOTE, and have your vote counted!!!
That starts with confirming that your voter registration is current, up to date, and accurate, so that your vote will be counted in the 2022 midterm elections and the elections going forward.
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What is representative government?
What is representative government?
Representative government is the form of democracy, that as an alternative to "direct democracy" where everyone votes on everything, instead, the people vote for "representatives" (senators, representatives, assembly members) and an "executive" (mayor, governor, president), to join together to run the affairs of government. And, in some states, voters also elect or confirm the appointment of judges.
The house of "Representatives" and "Senators" or "State Assembly" are the people's representatives, who ultimately vote on making laws, etc.
While most democracies are "representative democracies," many states have an "initiative" process by which certain issues CAN be brought to voters for a direct vote, bypassing the normal channels of representative government.
In some states like California, very major laws have been enacted by the initative process.
And many states have legalized marijuana via the initiative process, rather than through representative government.
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Who makes laws and regulations?
Who makes laws and regulations?
Legislators make laws. (I.e the “legislative branch” of government)
Administrative agencies, in the “executive branch”, (like the IRS, the FDA, OSHA, Medicare) make regulations.
Regulations are details about the laws that legislators have made.
Laws and legislation is made in legislative branch.
Not all legislation becomes law. In fact 90% of it never does. The vast majority of it never makes it out of committee.
Federal
Federal Laws
Congress: the House and the Senate.
Federal Regulations
Once laws are passed, then it is up to administrative agencies to carry them out. These agencies are charged with writing "regulations". The IRS is one such agency. It makes tax regulations that go into detail about how the tax laws should be applied in specific situations. By definition regulations generally are more voluminous than the laws themselves. Because they go into more detail and cover more different specific situations.
Proposed Regulations: Your chance to give input at “public hearings”
When agencies are adopting regulations they often have hearings and have public comment about the regulations they are proposing. For example the FTC, the federal trade commission may propose trade regulations and have a period of public comment to discuss them.
The food and drug administration may propose policies about drug prices and have hearings about that.
You can get a full list of government agencies at LegalConsumer.com here.
State Laws and Regulations
In Ohio things work pretty much the same way but the names of the legislative bodies might be different. For example, the house of representatives might be called an assembly in certain states. In some states the legislative branch only meets a few months a year. The job of the legislative branch is to create laws to deal with the problems of government.
County Laws and Regulations
Counties tend to have rules about what you can and cannot build, and building codes generally.
Every county has a board of some sort that sets an Agenda for board meetings to discuss things like:
- the county budget,
- whether funds should be allocated to some local public purpose, and
- whether real estate development is allowed to proceed.
- County bus lines and services
City and Township laws and regulations
- Sale of Liquor or Marijuana
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What is a city council? A county commission? A board of supervisors? And why should I care?
What is a city council? A county commission? A board of supervisors? And why should I care?
A City Council is a group of elected officials responsible for making decisions and laws at the local level within a city. They handle matters like budgets, ordinances, and policies that affect the city's residents.
A County Commission (or Board of County Commissioners) is a body of elected officials responsible for governing a county. They oversee various county services, such as public safety, infrastructure, and budget allocation.
A Board of Supervisors is similar to a City Council but operates at the county level. They are elected officials who manage county legislation, oversee public services, approve budgets, and ensure efficient operations within the county.
Why Should You Care?
Understanding the roles of these bodies is crucial as they directly impact your daily life. City Councils make decisions on local issues like schools and roads, County Commissions manage services like law enforcement and public works, while Boards of Supervisors ensure effective governance and service delivery in counties. By being aware of their functions, you can participate in local governance, influence policies that affect you directly, and ensure efficient use of public resources