GAME CHANGER
How Issue 1 could impact future ballot issues in Ohio
Ohioans who want to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot must first get buy-in from their fellow voters. ● That means citizen groups need to visit at least 44 counties across Ohio to collect signatures for their petitions. As he spoke last year about defending the state constitution, Secretary of State
Frank Larose said raising that signature threshold is one way to make it harder to change
Ohio’s founding document. ● But he also called it an “inelegant instrument” that could make it easier for special interests to get their way.
“If you were to raise the signature threshold, that would make it effectively harder for Ohioans to put an issue on the ballot,” Larose told reporters in November. “That would disadvantage those truly citizen groups that want to get out there with clipboards and make it happen.”
Fast forward to now: In one month, Ohioans will decide whether it should take 60% of the vote to approve constitutional amendments, instead of a simple majority of 50% plus one. The proposal, known as Issue 1, has groups fired up and raising money ahead of the Aug. 8 special election.
Issue 1 would also make changes to the signature-gathering process for citizen initiatives, including the proposal Larose cautioned against last fall.
While the 60% threshold gets most of the attention, critics say these lesserknown provisions could keep grassroots proposals off the ballot entirely.
“What you’re really doing is making it more difficult for the ordinary person on the street to feel involved in his government and be able to participate in it,” said Larry Long, a former director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio.
How signature changes got added to Issue 1
Issue 1 proposes two changes to signature gathering. First, groups would need to collect signatures from at least