What’s on the Line in Ohio’s August Election

By Rachel Bowman, America Votes Ohio State Director

You’ve heard it before, and you’ve seen that it is true: elections have consequences. That rings true not only for the big-ticket elections, but with smaller elections that may not feature candidates at all.

This August election is no exception. The ballot initiative in the August 8th election is likely to determine outcomes in all elections that succeed it.

The constitutional amendment in Issue 1 proposes raising the threshold for future ballot initiatives to pass from 50 to 60 percent. This means that even if 59 percent of voters cast their ballot in favor of a measure, it would still fail.

This attempt to change our state constitution would make minority rule the law of the land, and it fundamentally undermines Ohioans ability to make decisions for ourselves.

While this may seem like a mundane constitutional amendment, it is a Trojan horse being used to stop popular policies from becoming law. If Issue 1 is enacted, future ballot initiatives, including those regarding reproductive freedom and the minimum wage, will be much harder to pass even if they are supported by most Ohioans.

Conservative state legislators forced this expensive and unnecessary special election. Even those who previously argued against August elections, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, are supporting this year’s election. They cynically scheduled it during the summer in an obvious attempt to exclude students, young voters, and people who are less likely to vote.

Ohioans are not falling for it. There has been record-setting early vote numbers for an off year election with 170,000 mail ballots already returned and over 200,000 ballots cast in person, despite a limited number of early polling locations.

This playbook is nothing new. We have seen it and overcome it before, like last year in Kansas when voters defeated a measure that would have restricted abortion access. We can win in this election also, but it is going to take all of us voting and helping others to vote too.

If the amendment proposed in Issue 1 becomes law, a small minority of Ohio voters will be able to make decisions for all of us. This proposed amendment is unfair, undemocratic, and it is not good for Ohioans. We must vote NO on Issue 1 and make it clear to conservative state lawmakers that we will not put up with the few taking away the rights of the many.

Rachel Bowman is the America Votes Ohio State Director.