Voting in August
Let’s call this out: Republican legislators in the state of Ohio didn’t like August elections. They were expensive to hold, at $20 million statewide. They were unrepresentative; less than ten percent of the voters showed up on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August. It was vacation time, and back to school time, and the “dog days of summer” time. No one wanted to go to the polls, much less stand in an outside line in the ninety-degree heat.
But most importantly, August elections were just too easy to manipulate. Instead of having to reach the more than four million Ohioans who vote in the Presidential elections, or a similar number turned out for the mid-term elections (when Ohio chooses the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and several other major state offices), the August target is the narrow 638,708 voters (August 2022) out of nearly eight million registered voters. Only the most “activated” voters show up in August, and if an extremely expensive targeted campaign can “reach” them, a small minority can decide important issues in the state.
Believe it or not, I agreed with the Republican legislature when they ended August ballot issues. In the end, they were simply undemocratic (small ‘d’). That was, until being targeted, expensive, and undemocratic (small ‘d’) became the goal of the Republican Party of Ohio.
MAGA Ohio
As I’ve mentioned in previous essays, Ohio’s “MAGA” agenda manages to fly under the radar. While Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature made big headlines banning abortions after six weeks, that’s been on the Ohio “books” for years. The so-called “Heartbeat Bill” (there is no physical heart at six weeks, just pulsating nerve impulses that mimic a heart-like sound on an ultra-sound) has been Ohio law for years. It just came into effect with the Dodd Decision by the US Supreme Court.
While Florida made big headlines with their “Don’t Say Gay” law restricting teacher actions, Ohio is in the process of following up with anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation passing the legislature. And while lame-duck Governor Mike DeWine began with reasonable efforts to handle the Covid pandemic, he ultimately was undercut by his party’s legislature, so badly that he abandoned his choice for Ohio’s Director of Public Health, Amy Acton, and let her “take the fall” to the MAGA anti-mask, anti-shutdown, anti-life-saving Republican majority.
So what’s the “MAGA” legislature up to now? They are “reading the tea leaves”, foretelling the future of Ohio’s voters. And they don’t like what they see.
Ruby Red, Baby Blue
It started in Kansas, ironically in a similar August election. The Kansas State Constitution contained an “inconvenient” clause guaranteeing a woman’s right to control their own healthcare, including abortion rights. The ruby red Kansas legislature wanted to ban abortion, but first, they had to amend the state Constitution to remove that right. So they put the change on a statewide ballot in August, as the hot winds blasted across the prairie. To everyone’s surprise, the statewide ballot to change LOST, 58% voting against, in a huge voter turnout (near Presidential level). The people of Kansas resoundingly spoke out, defending a woman’s right to control their healthcare, including abortion.
Then last fall in the November election, the bluer Michigan voters passed an abortion protection addition to their Constitution by almost 56%. So pro-choice organizations in Ohio organized to put a similar initiative on the next “available” statewide election ballot, November of 2023. Ohio’s MAGA majority in the State Legislature (and their pro-life financial backers) were worried. If Michigan, and even Kansas voters chose pro-choice, what would Ohio voters do? While the west-side of Cincinnati is the “home” of the pro-life movement, the northern suburbs of Columbus is the current home to the powerful national pro-choice movement, “Red, Wine and Blue”. They mobilize mostly Republican suburban women, and had a tremendous impact in both Kansas and Michigan outcomes.
Move the Goal Post
The MAGA Republicans in the legislature didn’t want to risk a “straight-up” vote. So they used their legislative super-majorities to change the rules. While the abortion issue had to wait for the November election, they reinstituted the discarded August election date they previously outlawed. And they did it for one purpose: to require that statewide Constitutional changes need a SIXTY percent vote to pass. (Even the successes in Kansas and Michigan would be voided by a sixty percent threshold). And, of course, their change only has to pass by – wait for it – FIFTY percent.
And since August elections are so small and targeted, the MAGA Republicans hope they can win the “little one”, and eviscerate even a majority win in bigger November by the pro-choice groups. The undemocratic (small ‘d’) legislature changed the rules, at the behest of their own ideological and financial backers. And they are doubling down on the MAGA ideology, to make sure that only they can determine what “the will of the people” should be.
Coat and Tie Corruption
Ohio is a state of dirty politics, covered by a veneer of Republican coat and tie respectability. We are the state of First Energy and the $60 million bribe; of a Governor removing most of the State Board of Education’s powers (because there were a majority of Democrats – big ‘D’), and now “moving the goal posts” to try to make a pro-choice amendment unattainable. There’s only one answer to all of this dishonesty.
OHIOANS: Wear light clothes, put on sunscreen, take water, and line-up to vote on August 8th.
Democracy (little ‘d’) is at stake.
