Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose objected to August elections, but not to change Ohio Constitution

From left, state Sen. Michael Rulli, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose discuss a business anti-fraud bill at the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Laura Hancock/cleveland.com)
  • 126 shares

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the state’s chief elections officer, said Tuesday he supported a bill last year that generally ended August elections because he believes municipalities, local school districts, local sewer districts and others schedule them “to have a sneaky levy when nobody’s paying attention.”

However, LaRose isn’t objecting to an August special election that would make it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution and possibly scuttle a statewide vote in November on a proposed constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights.

“A statewide issue is a very different thing,” the Republican said during a press conference promoting a business fraud prevention bill. “There will be, I can promise you, a lot of coverage, a lot of news about it.”

Republicans in the General Assembly want to increase the threshold for constitutional amendments to pass from the current simple majority of 50% plus one vote to a 60% supermajority. They’ve cited a concern about too much out-of-state, big money interests in altering Ohio’s constitution.

If Republicans can get a bill passed that would allow voters to increase the threshold, and to have that vote in August, it would then require a 60% vote in November on the abortion rights amendment proposal. That could mean the abortion proposal’s defeat. Abortion rights supporters have prevailed in constitutional amendments in “red” and “purple” states in the 52% to 59% range.

About five hours after LaRose’s remarks, an Ohio Senate committee held its first hearing on Senate Joint Resolution 2, a bill that would allow for the threshold vote on Aug. 8.

The bill is similar to one in the House, House Joint Resolution 1.

Both bills raise the threshold to 60%, and would require that level of ballot-box support for both citizen-initiated constitutional amendment proposals and those proposed by the legislature.

The bills also have differences. While SJR 1 calls for a special election on Aug. 8, HJR 1 doesn’t have any election date.

HRJ 1 would also get rid of the “cure” period, which is when campaigns don’t have enough signatures on a petition to get on the ballot and are given one week to collect additional signatures. It would also require citizens to get signatures from all 88 Ohio counties. Currently, campaigns need to get 5% of electors in the most recent gubernatorial election in 44 counties. The Ohio Senate bill does not have these requirements.

State Sen. Michael Rulli, a Mahoning Valley Republican and chair of the Ohio Senate General Government Committee, drew criticism from opponents to the proposed change when he suggested a threshold of 50% plus one amounts to “mob rule.” But he also wasn’t clear why bill sponsors Sens. Theresa Gavarone, a Bowling Green Republican, and Rob McColley, a Henry County Republican, settled on 60% and not 75%, which is required when changing the U.S. Constitution.

The sponsors said it had to do with other states using the 60% threshold.

Democrats pressed Gavarone and McColley on why they had to schedule an election in August, when only around 13% or fewer of registered voters turn out, and the cost can be around $20 million.

“So no pun intended, there’s an elephant in the room,” said Sen. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat and minority leader in the Senate, referring to elephants as the symbol of the GOP. “And it is it the fact that a lot of folks are questioning whether or not there’s either coincidence or intentional timing of this piece of legislation being introduced.”

Antonio said that there’s research showing approximately 59% of Ohioans could support the proposed abortion rights amendment, just one point short of a potentially new 60% threshold.

McColley said that he would have preferred to have the election in May.

McColley also argued about the $20 million price tag for the election, saying that even though the legislature has provided $20 million for past August elections, some county boards of election return some of the money.

Sen. Bill DeMora, a Columbus Democrat, questioned why a vote would be held in August when most people don’t vote.

“I mean, studies are there. Statistics are there,” he said. “So we’re going to have maybe, if we get an unbelievable turnout of an August special election, we’re maybe going to have 25% of the eligible people in Ohio vote to basically gut the ability to change the constitution. How is that democracy?”

This comment elicited applause from the public in the committee room.

“I’d like to respectfully disagree,” Gavarone replied. “This bill does not disallow people to vote. This allows legal voters to vote on this issue.”

Although McColley and Gavarone avoided mentioning the abortion rights constitutional amendment, last week, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, said that the cost and effort of an August election is worth it to save “unborn” embryos and fetuses.

Jennifer La Place, an Advanced Placement Government teacher in Columbus, was among the members of the public who watched the hearing. She said the timing is problematic. La Place said she believes it’s because the Republicans are trying to defeat the abortion amendment.

“They know the voter turnout is lower in August,” she said. “They flat out know it.”

As for LaRose, he said he hopes the General Assembly passes a bill in enough time to give at least 100 days’ notice for local election officials to plan for Aug. 8.

If it’s 60 days or 40 days before the election, “it’s not going to be a good one and it’s going to be a mess and we advise against that,” he said. “We don’t want to have messy or logistically challenging elections.”

To read more abortion coverage from The Plain Dealer/ cleveland.com, visit this link.

Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

X

Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information

If you opt out, we won’t sell or share your personal information to inform the ads you see. You may still see interest-based ads if your information is sold or shared by other companies or was sold or shared previously.