Ohio reformulates question on constitutional amendment in August

Global Courant

Ohio’s polling station voted Tuesday to change the language on the state’s August ballot, which the state Supreme Court found misleading. – supported proposal as “raising the standards to qualify for an initiated constitutional amendment and to pass a constitutional amendment”.

An Ohio state panel voted Tuesday to adjust the language that spells out an upcoming statewide ballot proposal while stopping additional changes put forward by the opposition campaign, Democrats and voting rights advocates.

The Ohio Ballot Board’s party-line vote came a day after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the earlier wording was intended to mislead voters when they decided in August whether they would make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution. Issue 1 calls for raising the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments in Ohio from a simple majority to 60%.

State House Republicans created a special election in August to address the issue, hoping a victory would thwart a November proposal to enshrine access to abortion in Ohio’s constitution. Such proposals passed with more than half the vote in other states, but less than 60%.

OHIO SUPREME COURT REWRITTEN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT LANGUAGE OF VOTE

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the polling station was wrong when it described the measure as an increase in standards to make “any” constitutional amendment eligible for the vote, as the strict new requirements for collecting signatures apply only to apply to citizen-led voting initiatives, not those advanced by the Ohio General Assembly.

Ohioans protest for and against a proposed measure to raise the voting threshold for new constitutional amendments. The measure, which will appear on August’s ballot, has been reworded after it was initially found misleading by the state’s Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Samantha Hendrickson, File)

New wording, written by the office of Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and approved Tuesday, removes the word “each,” dropping from the title: “Raising Standards to Eligibility for an Initiated Constitutional Amendment and to Make a.” constitutional amendment.”

OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT DEMAND MAKES IT TO AUGUST VOTE

Opponents tried again, but failed to get LaRose to change the verb to something like “change” or “alter,” which she—and three dissenting judges—said would be more neutral. LaRose refused.

Summary language approved by the panel now explains that citizen-led change campaigns must collect signatures equal to 5% of the vote for governor, not of all voters, in “every county.”

It doesn’t explain that the amendment would double the number of counties where those signatures must be collected, from the current 44 to all 88. The description also omits that Ohio would amend a simple majority standard that has been in effect since 1912. , something opponents try to emphasize.

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Voters will learn from the summary that the proposed 60% amendment also calls for the removal of an existing recovery period, in which campaigns that fall a few signatures short will be given a handful of days to make up the difference.

Ohio reformulates question on constitutional amendment in August

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