Marlene Quinn is demanding an apology from supporters of Issue 2. She claims they twisted her words to produce a distorted and misleading television commercial that makes it appear that she, too, supports Issue 2, when in fact, she doesn't at all.
This sweet old woman and great-grandmother from Cincinnati has some spunk.
''How dare them. I didn't give them permission to do this; they didn't even ask me. They just stole it and said, 'well, she's just an old lady, she won't know any better.' They don't know this old lady,'' Quinn, 78, said.
Quinn spoke out against Issue 2, which decides the fate of Senate Bill 5, in a commercial produced by anti-Issue 2 group We Are Ohio. In the spot, which began airing Oct. 7, Quinn thanked firefighters in Cincinnati for saving her great-granddaughter from a fire.
Four days later, pro-Issue 2 group Building a Better Ohio began airing an ad using the same footage to make it seem Quinn supports passage of Issue 2 and, therefore, Ohio's new collective bargaining law.
We Are Ohio blasted the commercial.
''Issue 2 supporters have sunk to a new low by stealing the words of a great-grandmother,'' the group states in an email. ''This ad raises serious questions about the motives of their campaign and the personnel behind making the decisions to air this type of underhanded campaign commercial.''
Building a Better Ohio defends the commercial.
''Opponents of Issue 2 chose to use a personal story to make a political argument, but the same story makes an even more powerful case for supporting the reasonable reforms we're asking of our government employees,'' the group states in an email.
We Are Ohio claims the ad has been pulled from 30 television stations. The only chance viewers in the Mahoning Valley had to see the commercial was or is on a Cleveland-area station; that's because, spokeswomen for both groups say, they don't believe ad purchases were made in the Youngstown-Warren market.
We Are Ohio's original commercial is running here, but Building a Better Ohio's commercial is not, which raises the question (along with Building a Better Ohio's not having a satellite office in the area), has the group given up trying to convince voters locally to approve Issue 2?
In Mahoning County, the elections board is offering demonstrations for the new voting system being introduced for Election Day.
A staff member will travel anywhere in Mahoning County before the Nov. 8 election for any group or organization interested in a preview of the new precinct optical scan voting equipment. The old touch screen system is being ditched in favor of optical scanning, which the board used before moving to the touch-screen system about a decade ago.
''After 10 years, that other equipment is just shot,'' said elections board director Tom McCabe.
So in an effort to familiarize voters after so long of an absence, the elections board will travel anywhere, anytime to publicly demonstrate the new equipment.
In Trumbull County, a public test of touch-screen voting machine equipment for the election will be 9 a.m. Oct. 28 at the county elections board office, 2947 Youngstown Road S.E.