The Conservative Plan to Keep Ohio Forever Red
For decades, conservatives in Ohio have kept themselves in charge through extreme gerrymandering. But that's not enough for them. Now this supermajority is going after one of the few remaining checks on their power: the citizen ballot initiative, a state constitutional right since 1912 that enables Ohio voters to enact state laws directly, without legislative approval. The conservative legislators are aiming to make the ballot initiative so difficult to pull off that voters will fail or will be too daunted to try. To enact these changes, lawmakers need to get a proposed constitutional amendment past voters. So they've called a special election on ... August 8, a sleepy time when voter turnout is low. This is a sneak attack on democracy.
Early voting is already underway on Issue 1, the measure that, if passed, would make future ballot initiatives difficult if not impossible to introduce and pass. The amendment would add onerous signature-collection requirements and require a 60 percent supermajority vote for passage. Just as threats to undermine election results are on the rise, partisan extremists are also looking to steal power away from voters by taking away this form of direct democracy.
In Ohio, the strategy is clear: Put an unpopular antidemocratic measure to a vote in a month when families are on summer vacation, college students are away, and turnout is notoriously low. Describe it on the ballot in confusing language. Then count on out-of-state billionaires to flood the airways with ads to drive a small segment of voters to the polls. Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein, fresh from bankrolling election denialist candidates and Jan. 6 insurrectionists, donated $4 million dollars.
The brazenness of this power grab is matched only by its hypocrisy. Just a few months ago, the legislature banned August elections after last year's August election saw less than 8 percent turnout and cost taxpayers $20 million. At the time, one prominent Republican state official explained that allowing "just a handful of voters" with a "vested interest" decide major issues "isn't the way democracy is supposed to work."
https://www.newsweek.com/conservative-plan-keep-ohio-forever-red-opinion-1816411
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