Taking Initiative

What role should the Ohio Supreme Court play when citizen initiatives, ballot language and the powers voters have reserved for themselves end up in court?

In this Taking Initiative: Candidate Conversation, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner, a candidate for reelection in 2026, joins Ohio Ballot Protection to discuss direct democracy, judicial independence and the relationship between citizens, lawmakers and the courts.

Brunner draws on her experience as an Ohio Supreme Court justice, appellate and trial court judge, former Ohio Secretary of State and former chair of the Ohio Ballot Board.

We ask about:

• Why she considers initiative and referendum powers reserved to the people
• What happens when citizen initiatives reach the Ohio Supreme Court
• Recent data-center initiative cases
• The importance of ballot language
• What dissenting opinions accomplish
• Partisan labels in judicial elections
• The difference between initiatives, referenda and initiated legislation
• The role of the rule of law in maintaining public trust

Candidate Conversations is a special voter-education series from Ohio Ballot Protection. We talk with candidates for public office about citizen participation, direct democracy and the balance of power between voters and their elected representatives.

These conversations do not constitute an endorsement by Ohio Ballot Protection.

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

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What happens when citizens ask lawmakers to pause mega data center development—and hear “absolutely not”?

In this Taking Initiative Spotlight, Conserve Ohio’s Nikki Gerber joins Ohio Ballot Protection’s Laura Lucarelli to recount her September 30 Statehouse visit, efforts to secure a moratorium, and frustration over being sent between local and state officials. It’s a candid look at the obstacles citizen organizers face when seeking protections for their communities.

🎙️ Spotlight on an Initiative (Ban Mega Data Centers OH Initiative | Ohio Ballot Protection) follows citizen-led efforts through the process: the progress, the setbacks and what organizers learn along the way.

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

How did Ohioans gain the power to bypass their elected representatives and take issues directly to the ballot?

Journalist, former state legislator and Ohio historian Mike Curtin joins Taking Initiative to take us back to 1912 — a pivotal year when Ohio embraced the initiative and referendum and gave citizens powerful tools to check their government.

Curtin brings a rare perspective to the conversation. After 38 years in journalism covering government and politics, he crossed from the press gallery into the Ohio Statehouse as a legislator. Now he writes and speaks about Ohio history, public policy and the continuing importance of an informed citizenry.

We explore Teddy Roosevelt's role in Ohio's direct-democracy story, the “Fourth Estate,” the balance between representative and direct democracy, the importance of civics education — and why Curtin believes democracy is always a work in progress.

🎙️ Taking Initiative is a podcast from Ohio Ballot Protection about the people putting the power of direct democracy into action.

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

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What happens when a statewide citizen initiative becomes something much bigger?

In this Taking Initiative: Spotlight on an Initiative, we catch up with Conserve Ohio attorneys Nick Owens and Austin Baurichter as their effort to restrict large data centers moves forward on multiple fronts.

Since our last conversation, ten local charter amendments have qualified for the November ballot, another is headed to a January special election, legal challenges have reached the Ohio Supreme Court, and organizers are now calling on the Ohio General Assembly to enact a 12-month moratorium on new data center development.

Nick and Austin take us behind the scenes of the legal victories and setbacks, explain why communities are pursuing different approaches, and share what they're learning about Ohio's extraordinary tools of local direct democracy - while the world is watching us.

Most importantly, this is a story about what happens when ordinary Ohioans discover the legal tools available to them — and start using them.

🎙️ Spotlight on an Initiative (Ban Mega Data Centers OH Initiative | Ohio Ballot Protection) follows citizen-led efforts through the process: the progress, the setbacks and what organizers learn along the way.

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

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How does an everyday concern become a ballot initiative — and ultimately, a law?

Rev. Ray Greene of Freedom BLOC joins Taking Initiative to share a remarkably straightforward organizing philosophy: listen to people, build relationships and start local.

Greene takes us inside Freedom BLOC's work in Akron, where community conversations have helped shape citizen-led ballot initiatives addressing housing and public safety. But for Greene, winning at the ballot box isn't the only goal. The initiative process is also a way to help people discover their own power, develop new leaders and build stronger communities.

His message: lasting change happens neighbor by neighbor — because organizing moves at the speed of trust.

Learn more about The Freedom BLOC: Home | thefreedombloc

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

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What happens when people use direct democracy to challenge power — and power pushes back?

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, Executive Director of the BISC (http://www.ballot.org), joins Taking Initiative to explore the national landscape of citizen-led ballot measures and the growing fight to protect them.

Chris takes us from Missouri’s recent defense of majority rule to Ohio’s unique role as a national testing ground for direct democracy. Along the way, she explains why citizen initiatives are about much more than winning an election: they give ordinary people the power and agency to shape their communities, challenge government and turn ideas into change.

Because democracy is about more than casting a vote. It’s about what we do with the power we have.

Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/ 

Taking Initiative Podcast:    / @ohioballotprotection 

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In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came to Columbus to address the Ohio Constitutional Convention as delegates reconsidered how power should be shared between government and the people.

In his landmark speech, A Charter of Democracy, Roosevelt argued that initiative and referendum should give citizens a direct path to act when representative government fails to represent them. Later that year, Ohio voters approved constitutional amendments establishing those powers.

More than a century later, his message still resonates:

“The power is the people’s, and only the people’s.”

This special presentation of Taking Initiative brings Roosevelt’s words back to life—and reconnects Ohioans with the history behind one of the most important powers reserved to them in their state constitution.

Voice of Theodore Roosevelt: Adam the Bull, host of The Bullpen with Adam the Bull. We are grateful to Adam for generously donating his voice and talent to this project.

🎙️ Hear more from Adam: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBullpenwithATB

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Learn more about Ohio’s initiative and referendum powers: https://ohioballotprotection.com/

Taking Initiative Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@OhioBallotProtection

What happens when a statewide citizen initiative hits a roadblock? Conserve Ohio attorneys Nick Owens and Austin Baurichter share how their movement is taking direct democracy local — helping Ohio communities use their own power to address mega data centers. Their work also offers a preview of what’s coming soon from Ohio Ballot Protection: a new toolkit to help Ohioans turn “What can we do?” into action.

(Taped Aug. 6, 2026)

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In this episode, Taking Initiative co-hosts Laura Lucarelli and Patricia Blackmon debrief on what they've learned while interviewing the changemakers in Ohio's direct democracy over the last few months. Plus, Pat turns the mic on Laura to learn how the podcast came to be. They talk about direct democracy, the importance of protecting the people's power, and "what's in it for all of us" by getting involved.

In our Spotlight on an Initiative, the Conserve Ohio group announces 2027 is the new target for getting on the ballot. Then three of the initiative leaders attend a weekly commissioners meeting and voice concerns with others in the community about plans for a data center being built in Adams County.

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