ASHLAND — A constitutional amendment that would make it harder to amend the Ohio constitution will appear on local ballots — and every ballot statewide — in a newly created August special election approved by the Ohio House on Wednesday night.
The proposed amendment included in Senate Joint Resolution Two (SJR2) would require citizen-led amendment initiatives receive 60 percent approval from Ohio voters instead of the current 50-percent-plus-one threshold.
It would also require petitioners gathering signatures for an amendment to gather them from all 88 counties, instead of the current requirement of 44. Additionally, it would eliminate the “cure period” when additional signatures can be added to the petition after it’s submitted.
Ohio voters will decide on the 60-percent approval amendment in an Aug. 8 special election created by SJR2. In December, the Republican-led statehouse passed a bill, later signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine, that would eliminate August special elections.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Thomas Hall (R-Madison), said August elections were “costly” and “fail to engage a meaningful amount of the electorate in the process.”
Amanda Jones, the director of the Ashland County Board of Elections, said she did not expect to be planning another August election so soon after lawmakers did away with them.
“I knew it was a possibility if a school district was in fiscal emergency, but I didn’t think it would be this soon,” she said.
The Ashland board will have to recruit and train poll workers, set polling locations, and conduct tests over the summer to get ready for the looming special election, Jones added.
Republican proponents of the 60-percent amendment, which include statehouse Republicans and a number of statewide groups like the Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohio Right to Life, said it’s necessary to keep “special interests” from changing Ohio’s constitution.
“Our Founding Fathers ensured that the United States Constitution would be protected against outside influence and special interests by requiring a supermajority vote for amendments. We can and should protect the Ohio Constitution in a similar way,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said when he proposed the amendment in January.
Opponents of the amendment, which include statehouse Democrats, 250 unions and community groups, and a bipartisan coalition of former governors, say the amendment is “undemocratic” and would allow 40 percent of Ohioans to block the majority’s will.
“Extremists and special interest groups might hold the majority of House Republicans hostage, but the people and their Constitution aren’t for sale. The people will remember who sold out Democracy today, and the people will defeat this measure at the ballot box,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said on Wednesday.
The August election would take place just two months before a citizen-led amendment that would legalize abortion in the state is expected to appear on November ballots.
The deadline to register to vote in the August election is July 10. The first day of early voting is July 11. Also, the last day to request an absentee ballot would be Aug. 1, Jones said.
