A small group of Ohio GOP politicians are leading the effort to pass Issue 1 that will make it almost impossible for any future citizen-led constitutional amendments to succeed.

An Ohio law passed in 1912, or 111 years ago, permits citizens to organize a ballot issue to change or eliminate laws put in place by legislators who are out of touch with the will of the voters.

This right will be virtually eliminated if Ohio GOP politicians are successful in winning the August 8 Special Election for Issue 1.

One key provision of this anti-democratic legislation is to raise the threshold for voter passage of a citizen-led Constitutional Amendment from the current 50 percent, to instead, 60 percent.

If it passes, Issue 1 will allow a minority of 40 percent of the voters to control the outcome of a citizen-led ballot issue supported by 60 percent of the voters.

Ohio Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) who is the primary sponsor of House Joint Resolution 1 (HJR1 or the law authorizing Issue 1) explained in a private letter to members of his political party the purpose for this legislation. According to Stewart’s letter, one of Issue 1’s main objectives is to protect the Ohio GOP’s current practice of gerrymandering that has created rigged election districts in the state and that guarantees the continued reelection of a majority of GOP candidates in the future.

In 2015, over 71 percent of Ohio voters approved The Ohio Bipartisan Redistricting Commission Constitutional Amendment in order to end gerrymandered election districts for all state of Ohio elections.

In 2018, Ohio voters approved The Congressional Redistricting Procedures Amendment for all federal contests in the state.

For the 2022 midterm elections, in spite of the 2015 Constitutional Amendment being in place in which voters overwhelmingly demanded that districts for state elections be fair and nonpartisan, the Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC) repeatedly created gerrymandered distract maps that assured that the GOP would control the outcome of elections in a large majority of the districts for years to come.

And on five separate occasions, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered that the 2022 gerrymandered district maps were unconstitutional and must be redrawn. These highly manipulated district maps deprive many voters of their right to vote by rigging in advance the outcome of an election in favor of the political party in control of setting up the maps.

Each of the Court’s orders was ignored and with time running out until Election Day, the Ohio Supreme Court permitted the use of a set of the gerrymandered maps in the 2022 midterms.

Voting rights organizations in Ohio are now examining a new Constitutional Amendment to establish the Ohio Independent Redistricting Commission in order to permanently end gerrymandering.  It will be similar to the new Michigan Independent Redistricting Commission that has eliminated partisan districts in that state.

Issue 1’s 60 percent threshold for passage along with an almost impossible set of signature petition requirements were designed with the specific purpose and intent of preventing a Constitutional Amendment for an Ohio Independent Redistricting Commission that would end gerrymandering in the state.

Issue 1 is critical in order for a small group of Ohio GOP politicians to be able to continue unconstitutional and anti-democratic gerrymandered election districts that predetermine the outcome of future elections in the state even before the first ballot is cast.

Sanford Lubin works with DemocracyIssues.com, an Ohio-based voter rights initiative