Voters in Ohio can begin casting early in-person and mail-in absentee ballots for Ohio Issue 1, a state constitutional amendment, on Tue., July 11. The ballot measure will be decided in a special election on Aug. 8.
Issue 1 would make three changes to the laws governing citizen-initiated constitutional amendments in Ohio. The ballot measure would make the first change to the state’s initiative signature requirements since voters approved the process in 1912. Issue 1 would:
- Require campaigns for initiated constitutional amendments to collect signatures from each of the state’s 88 counties, an increase from the current requirement of 50% of the state’s 88 counties. Campaigns need to collect a number of signatures equal to 5% of the vote in the last governor’s election in each of the counties. This is known as a signature distribution requirement.
- Require a 60% vote for voters to approve a constitutional amendment, whether citizen-initiated or from the General Assembly. Currently, a constitutional amendment requires a simple majority vote (50% plus one) to be approved in Ohio.
- Eliminate the cure period of 10 days for campaigns to gather additional signatures for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments when the original submission did not have enough valid signatures.
