Delivering a win for abortion rights advocates, Ohio’s Issue 1 will fail, the Associate Press projects. The Republican-backed ballot initiative would have increased the threshold to amend the state’s constitution, making it more difficult for a measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution to pass later this year.
A “yes” vote on Issue 1 meant that constitutional amendments, including the abortion amendment, would have needed 60% support, rather than the existing minimum of 50% plus one. The increased threshold would have been put into place immediately if Issue 1 had passed.
Issue 1 also would have created more strict signature requirements for citizen-led measures to appear on the ballot. Currently, organizers must collect a number of signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election from half of Ohio’s 88 counties. If Issue 1 had passed, organizers would have needed signatures from all 88 counties.
I mean this is ridiculous for so many reasons but maybe the saddest/funniest part is that a “no” vote will “end majority rule” or “destroy citizen-led ballot initiatives as we know them” since a “no” vote on Issue one literally just maintains the status quo. It is literally maintaining citizen-led ballot initiatives as you know them.
It’s the argument against the amendment. It’s stating that if the amendment passes it would “end majority rule.” It’s poorly written.