At the end of a gloomy hallway, in the nearly empty Cincinnati office of Reform Ohio Now (RON), David Little waited grimly for someone, anyone, to show up on the Saturday before last week's election. Little, RON's Hamilton County field director, was slouched next to a pile of leaflets that urged voters to approve Issues 2, 3, 4, and 5, the laundry list of amendments to the state constitution that RON promised would cleanse Ohio's “culture of corruption.”

Eventually, a despondent volunteer filed into the office. She told Little she'd been making calls to voters from her home. “Every single person I've reached says they don't understand the issues,” she moaned. “Once I talk to them, everyone says they'll vote yes, but they seem really, really confused.”