Larose, Huffman must think you are stupid

Some members of the legislature and at least one statewide elected officeholder must think Ohio voters are stupid. Or have amnesia.

Three months ago, virtually all Republicans in the General Assembly and Secretary of State Frank Larose, a suburban Columbus Republican, the state’s chief election officer, favored abolishing August special elections as provided by House Bill 458, a measure the legislature passed in December and Republican Gov. Mike Dewine signed in January.

But Larose, who wants to run for the U.S. Senate, seems to have changed his mind: Maybe that’s because Republicans now fear Ohio voters might ratify — in November’s election — a constitutional amendment to establish abortion rights in Ohio. (According to state Health Department data women — 95% of them Ohioans — obtained 21,813 abortions in Ohio in 2021, latest data available.)

So, some GOP legislators, notably in the Senate, want to hold an August election this summer to make it harder to change the constitution in November.

The proposed August amendment would require a 60% yes vote on November’s abortion ballot issue rather than 50%-plus-1 requirement Ohio’s had since 1912. That would give 41% of voters a veto over the remaining 59% of voters:

Republicans want to change the rules of the game in August because they fear that otherwise voters will pass the abortion-rights amendment in November. It’s the Statehouse version of heads I win, tails you lose. The evident assumption is that committed antiabortion voters — worried about losing a simple-majority vote in November — would be likelier than proabortion-rights voters to show up in August.

Last year’s House Bill 458, the bill Larose praised in January, “makes a number of long-sought election modernization improvements, including … eliminating August special elections – a costly, low-turnout, and unnecessary election for our county [Elections] boards to administer,” he said.

Except for two downstate House GOP members (Rep. Jay Edwards, of Nelsonville, and the late Rep. Kris Jordan, of Ostrander), every Republican in the legislature voting on HB 458 voted “yes.”

The bill is mainly known for toughening Ohio’s photo-id rules for voters. But the 2022 bill also abolished — with very limited exceptions — August elections, elections which Larose, in testimony, condemned: “Voters just don’t turn out. That means just a handful of voters end up making big decisions. The side that wins [in August] is often the one that has a vested interest in the passage of the issue up for consideration.”

What’s changed since then is growing GOP fear the voter-proposed November abortion rights amendment has momentum. (What hasn’t changed is Larose’s hunger for 2024’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate for the seat now held by Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown, himself secretary of state from 1983 through 1990.)

Pending in the Senate is Senate Bill 92, sponsored by Sens. Rob Mccolley, of Napoleon, and Theresa Gavarone, of Bowling Green, to authorize an Aug. 8 elec

tion on constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature -- not by petitioners. Their bill allots $20 million from taxpayers to cover the election’s cost. (In December, Mccolley and Gavarone voted “yes” on HB 458 — to ban most August elections.)

And Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, supports SB 92, which suggests the Senate will pass it.

In contrast, Huffman’s fellow Republican, House Speaker Jason Stephens, of Gallia County’s Kitts Hill, has indicated that while he is anti-abortion, he opposes holding an August election because county official don’t want to hold one then.

By mid-week, Stephens softened his anti-august-election stance, maybe after a nose-count of his 65-member House GOP caucus. (Two additional Ohio House Republican seats remain vacant, evidently because of a split in Stephens’s caucus.) The House caucus’s main anti-stephens figure, Rep. Derek Merrin, of suburban Toledo, supports an August election.

Whether the 65 House Republicans will take their cue from Stephens is likely but not certain. Still, House supporters on an August election would only have to muster at least 50 “yes” votes for an August election designed to make it harder for pro-abortionrights voters to pass their proposed constitutional amendment in November’s election. A gerrymandered legislature wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com.