Voters in Ohio went to the polls to decide whether to approve a measure known as Issue 1 that would raise the bar for constitutional amendments on the ballot. In the ultimate irony, the vote against changing the amendment process exceeded the 60% supermajority that the special election was seeking to require in the first place.
Did they sneak it in as part of issue 1?
It was always part of Issue 1. The 3 big changes for issue 1 were:
Change the number of counties requiring signatures for ballot measures from 44 (half the counties in Ohio) to 88 (all of the counties in Ohio). If I remember correctly, that’s 5000 signatures from each county.
Remove petition curing period so that if some counties fell short of the required number of signatures or if some signatures were rejected or disputed for whatever reason, there would be no time to get more. I think the current curing period is a week.
Require a super-majority (60%) for a ballot measure to pass, rather than a simple majority (>50%).
To me, the least troubling of these was the super-majority part that’s been so hyped up, because the first 2 changes would have made it near impossible for voter-led initiatives to even get on the ballot to begin with. The only ballot measures we’d ever have a chance to vote on would be whatever the state house deemed worthy. All to prevent a ballot measure this November that would allow abortions for non-viable fetuses.
Regarding point 2, it’s interesting to note that the cannabis organization initiative fell short by nearly 700 signatures just a couple of weeks ago. During that curing period nearly 7000 signatures were obtained.
This initiative easily had enough support to get put on the ballot, but issue 1 sought to make it so bills in this situation would be dead in the water. An active subversion of the will of the people.