The Ohio Supreme Court largely struck down an attempt to overhaul the language in a Republican-backed ballot amendment proposal on Monday that would raise the requirements to amend the state’s constitution.
On May 10, the Ohio General Assembly passed SJR 2, which would require future constitutional amendment proposals to receive approval from 60 percent of voters rather than a simple majority. The ballot initiative — also known as Issue 1 — would furthermore mandate initiative petitions for constitutional amendment proposals “be signed by at least five percent of the eligible voters of each county in the state” and “eliminate a provision allowing an insufficient initiative petition to be supplemented with additional signatures once the petition is filed with the secretary of state.”
As specified in Ohio law, the secretary of state is tasked with creating the title for any ballot amendment while the state ballot board must craft the proposal’s language.
Following the creation of the proposal — which was titled, “Elevating The Standards To Qualify For And To Pass Any Constitutional Amendment” — a group known as One Person One Vote and several Ohio residents filed a lawsuit seeking a court order “compelling the board to reconvene to adopt new ballot language or, alternatively, compelling the board to place the full text of the proposed amendment on the ballot.” The groups additionally requested that the court require Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose craft a new proposal title.
Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), an election integrity legal
