Way to Go, Ohio
Congratulations, citizens of Ohio. By a strong margin, 57% to 43%, with over three million people voting, Ohioans turned down Issue One this week. It was a 38% turnout, in spite of the oddity of an August statewide election. That’s not as high as the 2022 November election at 52%, but it’s higher than the spring 2022 and 2020 primaries, and close to the highly contested 44% turnout in the 2016 primaries. The first rule to make a difference is “show up”, and Ohioans showed up this week.
Veto Power
Issue One would have changed three parts of the Initiative process of amending the Ohio Constitution. It would have required a new amendment to pass by 60% instead of 50% plus one. It would have made the petition acceptance for the ballot a “one shot deal”. Currently, petitioners have ten days to add or “fix” petitions after they are submitted, the Issue would have required them to be either good on entry or rejected.
But perhaps the most Insidious part of the Issue was way “in the weeds” of electioneering. To get a citizen’s petition issue on the ballot now, law requires a convoluted process of getting the wording of the petition approved. The ballot language requires 1000 legal voter signatures, and then approval of the State Attorney General and then the Elections Board. That’s just for the language on the petitions. Only then can petitions be circulated publicly. Final petitions require 10% of the total vote in the last Gubernatorial elections, and at least 5% from 44 of the 88 counties in the state.
Issue One required 10% statewide, but also required 5% of ALL 88 counties. In Noble County in Eastern Ohio, there are less than 8000 registered voters spread across the foothills of Appalachia. In 2022, 4734 voted for Governor (82% Republican, 17% Democrat). Under the failed Issue One, it would require 274 legal signatures from Noble County to qualify for the ballot. In contrast, Franklin County, the Columbus metro area, has 860,000 registered voters. 409205 voted for Governor in 2022. It requires 20,461 legal signatures from there.
The 274 in Noble County would hold a “veto power” over the entire state.
One Person, One Vote
Now that Issue One has failed (it gained 67% of the vote in Noble County, but only 25% in Franklin County), some Republicans are trying to create another “wedge issue” to divide Ohioans. Social Media echoes with the claim: those “Blue cities” have forced their will onto the rest of “good” Ohioans, again. 66 “good” Ohio counties voted in favor of Issue One, “only” 22 voted against it – but it still failed (by 57%).
In the 1960’s, the US Supreme Court in a series of cases (Baker v Carr, Wesberry v Sanders, Reynolds v Sims) said that States must have voting districts of equal population. Ohio and California are widely different in size, but under the US Constitution, they each still have two Senators. But Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Noble County (Caldwell) MUST have representation based on population. Out of these cases came the legal axiom that each voter should have the same weight as any other voter: “one person, one vote”.
Wedge
Urban and rural are widely divided here in Ohio. It’s not just along racial lines, it’s also religious, economic, and cultural. But it’s not as stark as you might think. Listen to the music in the parking lot of the local high schools. It’s hip hop and pop, from urban Columbus to suburban Pataskala to rural Archbold.
But to “gin up” the vote, politicians use the divide as a wedge. They tell their rural base that cities (with all the racial overtones) forced their will on the state. The reality is if you take the three biggest urban counties out of the August count Issue One count (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati), it still fails.
It’s a national issue, highlighted by the electoral college. When you look at the political voting “maps”, the Red/Blue look at the nation, we are a Red country with blue edges and a few splotches in the middle. But when we look at the population maps, we are really bluer than red.
US – Political Majority by County
US – Political Majority by Population
It’s the law, at least until this crazy Supreme Court tries to rewrite it: One person, one vote. The “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties” are Beautiful, but land doesn’t vote; and neither do cows. People do.
