August 2023 Ohio Issue 1

A special election was held in the U.S. state of Ohio on August 8, 2023, on a referendum to make it substantially harder for voter-led initiatives to amend the Ohio State Constitution to be proposed and approved.S.J.R. 2
Ohio General Assembly.

The initiative was defeated by a decisive margin of 57% to 43% amid unusually high voter turnout for an off-year election held in August, with over 3 million ballots cast overall.

The intent of this initiative, according to its creator, Republican State Representative Brian Stewart, was to "topa whole host of eferendumissues that we know are coming down the pike" including on redistricting, qualified immunity, the minimum wage and, most notably, abortion; a referendum to restore ''Roe v. Wade''-era access to abortion in the state appeared on the November 2023 ballot and passed by a 57% to 43% margin.

Background

Issue 1 was proposed by State Representative Stewart and the state's top election official, Secretary of State Frank LaRose. According to Stewart, Issue 1 was intended to stop "far-left ballot proposals" and "ballot campaigns eaturingdestructive policies that iberal groupscould never get through a state legislature", while LaRose stated that it was "100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution". LaRose later claimed that his statement was taken out of context and generally called the issue a "good government" move that blocks influence from out-of-state special interests.

The amendment was supported by the Republican Party of Ohio and opposed by a multipartisan coalition of groups including the Democratic Party of Ohio, Libertarian Party of Ohio, Green Party of Ohio, and several former Republican officials; with the former claiming that the amendment was necessary to prevent advocacy groups from lobbying their interests into the state constitution, and the latter arguing that the amendment was undemocratic and would result in minority rule. Four former governors of Ohio, John Kasich, Ted Strickland, Bob Taft, and Dick Celeste, favored a "no" vote on Issue 1, along with a large majority of Ohio newspapers, who argued that Issue 1's passage would have the effect of centralizing power in the state government and limit the power of voters to effect political change. Incumbent Republican governor Mike DeWine supported it.

The issue was widely seen as being related to the issue of abortion in Ohio, as a referendum to restore legal access to elective abortion in the state would be held in November 2023. Thus, the scheduling of the Issue 1 vote was seen as an attempt to raise the success threshold before the abortion vote could take place. In addition, advocacy groups also attempted to use the referendum as an attack to LGBT rights, mainly, transgender rights.

The decision to hold the election in August as opposed to November was criticized as an attempt to help the amendment's passage by capitalizing on historically low voter turnout in special elections. In fact, the Ohio General Assembly had passed, and Governor DeWine had signed, House Bill 458 just months earlier, among the provisions of which eliminated August special elections except in cases of fiscal emergency; the stated rationale for this provision, given by Secretary of State Frank LaRose and others at the time, was the consistently low turnout seen in historical August elections. After the Issue 1 vote was scheduled for August 2023, LaRose defended this apparent contradiction by saying that HB 458 does not apply to state legislators, who are free to select any date they wish for a referendum on a constitutional amendment they refer to voters. Democrats rebutted this point, saying that legislators should have chosen from a list of election days that had already been set. A lawsuit was filed over the timing of the election, but on June 16, in a 4–3 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed with LaRose's interpretation and decided the election would continue as scheduled. The election cost state taxpayer
$20 million

Similar amendments to require supermajority support for state constitutional amendments have failed in various states, most recently in Arkansas in 2022. A comparable measure passed in Florida in 2006.

In June 2023, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that part of the amendment was misleading and would have to be rewritten by the state's Ballot Board.

Political scientist Jacob M. Grumbach claimed the passage of Issue 1 would likely lead to democratic backsliding, citing the proposed measure as among a "growing use of moves that defy norms of democratic behavior".

Provisions

If approved by voters, the amendment would have changed the Ohio State Constitution, modifying the Initiative and Referendum Process Amendment of 1912, which created a method for citizen-initiated direct democracy in Ohio.

A "yes" vote on Issue 1 was a vote to change the Ohio Constitution by:
* Requiring signatures from all 88 counties to get an amendment on the ballot, instead of the current 44 counties (50%).
* Removing the 10-day cure period (a period allowing fixes to any errors in the collected signatures).
* Increasing the passing percentage from a simple majority (50%+1) vote to a three-fifths supermajority (60%) on citizen and legislature-initiated referendums.
Had the amendment passed the second and third provisions would have taken effect immediately, while the first provision would have taken effect on January 1, 2024.

A "no" vote on Issue 1 was a vote to keep the Ohio Constitution as is, by:
* Keeping the number of counties from which signatures are required to get an amendment on the ballot at 44 counties (50%)
* Keeping the 10-day cure period.
* Maintaining the passing percentage of a citizen-initiated referendum at a simple majority (50%+1 vote), without creating a difference between citizen-initiated referendums and legislature-initiated referendums.

Endorsements

Polling

Turnout and outcome

Voter turnout was unusually high, particularly for an August ballot, with approximately 39% of registered voters casting votes on the issue. The ''Columbus Dispatch'' reported that it was the highest turnout for a non-general election since the 2016 primary.

Excluding outstanding absentee by mail and provisional ballots, the ''Dispatch'' reported late on August 8 with more than 99% of the votes counted that the referendum failed by a margin of more than 14%. Of the more than 3 million votes counted, 57.11% were "no" votes and 42.89% voted "yes". Decision Desk HQ, an election results reporting agency, called the race around 8:09 p.m. EDT, while The Associated Press projected that Issue 1 had failed around 9 p.m. EDT.

References

{{2023 United States elections

2023
Ohio Issue 1, 08/2023
August 2023 events in the United States
2023 in Ohio
U.S. state constitutional amendments
Constitution of Ohio
2023 Ohio elections
Electoral system ballot measures in the United States