Ahead of Abortion Vote, Ohio Republicans Push To Make Future Amendments Harder To Pass

Ohio Republicans are trying to raise the bar on amending the state constitution ahead of a November vote on abortion rights that could enshrine the right to an abortion into the state constitution. Compounding the difficulty of the issue, a planned August vote on the amendment would come shortly after the state banned August elections, with an exception having been made for the vote in question.The resolution, which would require that state constitutional amendments get 60 percent of the vote instead of just more than 50 percent, was passed by the state legislature and was greenlighted by Governor DeWine, a Republican.With the backing of the legislature and the governor, the bill would approve a special election scheduled for August. While the resolution would raise the bar for amending the constitution in the future, this measure would only require a simple majority to pass.The bill faced opposition from state Democrats and a handful of Republicans, including a former Republican governor, Bob Taft.“For more than 100 years, amendments to the Ohio Constitution have been decided by a simple majority vote,” Mr. Taft wrote in a letter opposing the measure. “The decision to change such a deeply embedded practice should not be made at a low turnout election.”Mr. Taft was joined in his opposition by another former Republican governor, John Kasich, as well as two former Democratic governors, Richard Celeste and Ted Strickland.“I guess I can understand why some politicians that have a gerrymandered hold on the state would like to take away the direct voice of the people,” Mr. Strickland said. “That would give them all power.”The referendum is aimed at preempting another vote on a constitutional amendment scheduled for November, which could give Ohioans a constitutional right to an abortion if passed.Advocates for abortion rights in the state, which passed a six-week abortion ban following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision last summer, say that state Republicans are trying to avoid voter pushback to their unpopular policies.“These politicians know that their radical views on abortion care can’t win a fair vote, so they’re rigging the system,” the Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom spokeswoman, Kellie Copeland, said in a statement.Supporters of the push to raise the bar for amending the constitution, like Brian Stewart, a state representative, say that the measure will make it harder for outside influences to affect state policy.“If any outside group believes its ideas are worthy of inclusion in Ohio’s constitution, then they should be able to earn the widespread public support that a 60 percent vote margin will require,” Mr. Stewart, a Republican, said at a floor debate on the subject.According to Pew Research, 48 percent of Ohio adults think abortion should be legal in most cases while 47 percent think it should be illegal in most cases, suggesting that the November vote would be unlikely to reach 60 percent support.Making the August referendum on constitutional amendments even more unusual is that the state recently eliminated August special elections due to low voter turnout and high cost.The bill that approved putting the question of raising the bar for amending the constitution on the ballot created a “one-time” special exception to this policy for the coming August vote.“With this being a bonafide, statewide question, and with it being an important question … I would say the turnout is going to be markedly higher in this August election,” a state senator, Rob McColley, said on the senate floor.For reference, the 2022 August special election saw a turnout of 8 percent. The legal dubiousness of the coming August election has also attracted a legal challenge.A spokesman for the group challenging the coming August special election, One Person One Vote, Dennis Wilard, said that the group is confident that the state’s high court will be sympathetic to its request to have the vote moved to November.“The question every voter should be asking themselves is – why August, when there was already an election scheduled for November?” Mr. Willard said. “The answer is simple: because that’s what special interests wanted.”

Ahead of Abortion Vote, Ohio Republicans Push To Make Future Amendments Harder To Pass

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