On Aug. 8, voters in Ohio will approve or reject Issue 1, which would make three changes to the laws governing citizen-initiated constitutional amendments. With the commencement of early voting yesterday, we took the opportunity to provide an overview of Issue 1, which you can read here.
In this article, we delve into one specific provision of Issue 1—the 60% vote requirement for constitutional amendments—and the history of supermajority requirements for ballot measures across the states. Tomorrow, we will publish an article exploring a second provision of Issue 1—the proposed change to the signature distribution requirement for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.
Issue 1 would require a 60% vote on future constitutional amendments, including those that could appear on the ballot in Nov. 2023, such as an abortion-related constitutional amendment. Currently, a simple majority (50%+1) vote is required for voters to approve constitutional amendments in Ohio.
