Let\u2019s call this out: Republican legislators in the state of Ohio didn\u2019t 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 \u201cdog days of summer\u201d time. No one wanted to go to the polls, much less stand in an outside line in the ninety-degree heat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cactivated\u201d voters show up in August, and if an extremely expensive targeted campaign can \u201creach\u201d them, a small minority can decide important issues in the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Believe it or not, I agreed with the Republican legislature when they ended August ballot issues. In the end, they were simply undemocratic (small \u2018d\u2019). That was, until being targeted, expensive, and undemocratic (small \u2018d\u2019) became the goal of the Republican Party of Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I\u2019ve mentioned in previous essays, Ohio\u2019s \u201cMAGA\u201d agenda manages to fly under the radar. While Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature made big headlines banning abortions after six weeks, that\u2019s been on the Ohio \u201cbooks\u201d for years. The so-called \u201cHeartbeat Bill\u201d (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Florida made big headlines with their \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d 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\u2019s legislature, so badly that he abandoned his choice for Ohio\u2019s Director of Public Health, Amy Acton, and let her \u201ctake the fall\u201d to the MAGA anti-mask, anti-shutdown, anti-life-saving Republican majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what\u2019s the \u201cMAGA\u201d legislature up to now? They are \u201creading the tea leaves\u201d, foretelling the future of Ohio\u2019s voters. And they don’t like what they see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It started in Kansas, ironically in a similar August election. The Kansas State Constitution contained an \u201cinconvenient\u201d clause guaranteeing a woman\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s right to control their healthcare, including abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cavailable\u201d statewide election ballot, November of 2023. Ohio\u2019s 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 \u201chome\u201d of the pro-life movement, the northern suburbs of Columbus is the current home to the powerful national pro-choice movement, \u201cRed, Wine and Blue\u201d. They mobilize mostly Republican suburban women, and had a tremendous impact in both Kansas and Michigan outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MAGA Republicans in the legislature didn\u2019t want to risk a \u201cstraight-up\u201d 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 \u2013 wait for it \u2013 FIFTY percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since August elections are so small and targeted, the MAGA Republicans hope they can win the \u201clittle one\u201d, and eviscerate even a majority win in bigger November by the pro-choice groups. The undemocratic (small \u2018d\u2019) 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 \u201cthe will of the people\u201d should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s powers (because there were a majority of Democrats \u2013 big \u2018D\u2019), and now \u201cmoving the goal posts\u201d to try to make a pro-choice amendment unattainable. There\u2019s only one answer to all of this dishonesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n