CINCINNATI — The Aug. 8 Special Election is fast approaching and the only thing voters will see on the ballot is Issue 1.
Some have been confused about what exactly Issue 1 addresses, with ads for and against it mentioning abortion as well as topics like voting rights and freedom.
When you got to vote, though, you won't see those words on the ballot. You will see an outline of three changes Issue 1 would make:
- Any proposed constitutional amendment would require 60% of the vote to pass, rather than the 50%-plus-one votes currently required;
- Any petition for a constitutional amendment filed on or after January 1, 2024, would need signatures from 5% of the voters from the last gubernatorial election in each Ohio county, rather than the current requirement of signatures from half of the state's counties and;
- The 10-day period that allows invalid signatures to be replaced with new ones on citizen-led ballot initiatives for constitutional amendments would be eliminated.
If passed, these changes would go into effect immediately.
"If this passes, you make every future change to the state constitution harder. If this fails, you maintain the system Ohio has had more than 100 years, but it touches every single issue that is a part of the state," said UC political science professor David Niven.
These changes would impact any future citizen-led ballot initiative.
"[Citizen-led ballot initiatives are a] check and balance against the legislature so that if you have a legislature that on some issue that is important to the voters is just out of step with the voters, it's a way that the voters can overrule the legislature," NKU law professor Ken Katkin said.
This is why many ads and conversations surrounding Issue 1 mention topics like abortion because it would impact the difficulty of passing a possible constitutional amendment related to abortion.
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