All articles tagged with #state issue 1
Ohio voters defeated State Issue 1, making it harder to amend the Ohio constitution, by a 57%-43% margin. This defeat is a blow to abortion opponents who were hoping to hinder a November ballot issue that would add abortion rights to Ohio's constitution.
The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered Republican state officials to rewrite the ballot language summarizing the effects of State Issue 1, which would amend the state constitution to require future amendments to get a 60% supermajority in a statewide vote in a future in order to pass. The court found errors in the ballot language, including one that incorrectly described a new minimum number of voter signatures that amendment campaigns must collect from each Ohio county to qualify for the ballot. The court declined to take a more expansive role in ordering the language to be rewritten, rejecting some of the core arguments from the group whose lawsuit prompted the court’s Monday decision.
Ohio officials acknowledge a mistake in the ballot language summarizing State Issue 1, but argue that it doesn't matter and defend the measure's overall wording as fair and accurate. One Person One Vote, the campaign group working to defeat the measure, filed a lawsuit asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reject the language and order that it be rewritten. The lawsuit argues that Republicans stacked the deck while writing the ballot language and failed to meet legal requirements that the language be accurate and neutral.
The Ohio Ballot Board has set the language that will appear before voters for the upcoming Aug. 8 election when they’re asked to make it harder to change the Ohio constitution. The ballot language is a key procedural development as the state prepares for the August election, the state’s first to decide a ballot issue since before World War II. State Issue 1 would require a 60% supermajority in a statewide vote to approve future amendments to the Ohio Constitution.