A ballot question seeking to make it more difficult to amend the Ohio Constitution was cleared for an August ballot on Thursday, and teams of Republican and Democratic lawmakers assigned to write pro and con arguments, respectively, to be presented to voters.
The process before the Ohio Ballot Board followed the raucous legislative floor session and months of drama leading up to approval of the measure, which is aimed at thwarting an effort to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution this fall. Abortion is currently legal in Ohio, up to 20 weeks’ gestation, as a lawsuit against a near-ban enacted in 2019 is argued.
On this August’s ballot, voters will be asked whether or not they support raising the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments from the simple majority Ohio has had in place since 1912 to a 60% supermajority. As a constitutional amendment itself, the 60% question will only need to pass by a simple majority of 50%-plus-one.
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Should either side object to the others’ phrasing, they could file suit in the Ohio Supreme Court, which holds exclusive power to settle disputes in cases where lawmakers forward an ballot question straight to voters.
Democratic lawyer Don McTigue, representing the One Person One Vote Campaign, disagreed with the title LaRose’s office gave to the issue, which describes it as “elevating the standards” to qualify constitutional amendments of Ohio’s ballot. McTigue suggested “modifying” as more neutral, noting that it’s against Ohio law for ballot language to bias voters in one way or another.
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LaRose said his intention was to keep the ballot language simple, which Democratic state Sen. Bill DeMora said was disingenuous. “It’s sneaky and it’s illegal,” he said.