The initiative was defeated by a decisive margin of 57% to 43% amid unusually high voter turnout for an off-year election held in August, with over 3 million ballots cast overall.
Issue 1 was proposed by State Representative Stewart and the state's top election official, Secretary of State
Frank LaRose.[4] According to Stewart, Issue 1 was intended to stop "far-left ballot proposals" and "ballot campaigns [featuring] destructive policies that [liberal groups] could never get through a state legislature", while LaRose stated that it was "100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution".[5][6] LaRose later claimed that his statement was taken out of context and generally called the issue a "good government" move that blocks influence from out-of-state special interests.[7]
The amendment was supported by the
Republican Party of Ohio and opposed by a multipartisan coalition of groups including the
Democratic Party of Ohio,
Libertarian Party of Ohio,
Green Party of Ohio, and several former Republican officials; with the former claiming that the amendment was necessary to prevent
advocacy groups from lobbying their interests into the state constitution, and the latter arguing that the amendment was undemocratic and would result in
minority rule.[8] Four former governors of Ohio,
John Kasich,
Ted Strickland,
Bob Taft, and
Dick Celeste, favored a "no" vote on Issue 1, along with a large majority of Ohio newspapers, who argued that Issue 1's passage would have the effect of
centralizing power in the state government and limit the power of voters to effect political change.[9][10] Incumbent Republican governor
Mike DeWine supported it.[11]
The decision to hold the election in August as opposed to November was criticized as an attempt to help the amendment's passage by capitalizing on historically low
voter turnout in special elections.[13] In fact, the
Ohio General Assembly had passed, and Governor DeWine had signed, House Bill 458 just months earlier, among the provisions of which eliminated August special elections except in cases of fiscal emergency; the stated rationale for this provision, given by Secretary of State
Frank LaRose and others at the time, was the consistently low turnout seen in historical August elections.[14] After the Issue 1 vote was scheduled for August 2023, LaRose defended this apparent contradiction by saying that HB 458 does not apply to state legislators, who are free to select any date they wish for a referendum on a constitutional amendment they refer to voters.[15] Democrats rebutted this point, saying that legislators should have chosen from a list of election days that had already been set. A lawsuit was filed over the timing of the election, but on June 16, in a 4–3 ruling, the
Ohio Supreme Court agreed with LaRose's interpretation and decided the election would continue as scheduled.[16] The election cost state taxpayers
$20 million.
Similar amendments to require supermajority support for state constitutional amendments have failed in various states, most recently in
Arkansas in 2022.[17] A comparable measure passed in
Florida in
2006.[18]
In June 2023, the
Ohio Supreme Court ruled that part of the amendment was misleading and would have to be rewritten by the state's Ballot Board.[19]
Political scientist Jacob M. Grumbach claimed the passage of Issue 1 would likely lead to
democratic backsliding, citing the proposed measure as among a "growing use of moves that defy norms of democratic behavior".[9]
Provisions
If approved by voters, the amendment would have changed the Ohio State Constitution, modifying the Initiative and Referendum Process Amendment of 1912, which created a method for citizen-initiated direct democracy in Ohio.[20]
A "yes" vote on Issue 1 was a vote to change the Ohio Constitution by:
Requiring signatures from all 88 counties to get an amendment on the ballot, instead of the current 44 counties (50%).
Removing the 10-day cure period (a period allowing fixes to any errors in the collected signatures).
Increasing the passing percentage from a simple majority (50%+1) vote to a three-fifths
supermajority (60%) on citizen and legislature-initiated referendums.[21]
Had the amendment passed the second and third provisions would have taken effect immediately, while the first provision would have taken effect on January 1, 2024.[22]
A "no" vote on Issue 1 was a vote to keep the Ohio Constitution as is, by:
Keeping the number of counties from which signatures are required to get an amendment on the ballot at 44 counties (50%)
Keeping the 10-day cure period.
Maintaining the passing percentage of a citizen-initiated referendum at a simple majority (50%+1 vote), without creating a difference between citizen-initiated referendums and legislature-initiated referendums.
Voter turnout was unusually high, particularly for an August ballot, with approximately 39% of registered voters casting votes on the issue.[82][83] The Columbus Dispatch reported that it was the highest turnout for a non-general election since the 2016 primary.[3]
Excluding outstanding absentee by mail and provisional ballots, the Dispatch reported late on August 8 with more than 99% of the votes counted that the referendum failed by a margin of more than 14%. Of the more than 3 million votes counted, 57.11% were "no" votes and 42.89% voted "yes".[84]Decision Desk HQ, an election results reporting agency, called the race around 8:09 p.m. EDT, while
The Associated Press projected that Issue 1 had failed around 9 p.m. EDT.[85][86]
^
ab"What supporters, opponents are saying about Issue 1 on Ohio's August ballot". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved August 3, 2023. Stewart: There are a whole host of issues that we know are coming down the pike. ... We know that's coming on a whole host of issues. I think it's entirely reasonable, knowing that that's on the horizon for this November, next November and so forth, to ask Ohioans to say wait, we're going to have an election to decide the rules of the game. ... That applies to abortion, that applies to redistricting, that applies to wage hikes, that applies to qualified immunity.