Voters in Ohio went to the polls to decide whether to approve a measure known as Issue 1 that would raise the bar for constitutional amendments on the ballot. In the ultimate irony, the vote against changing the amendment process exceeded the 60% supermajority that the special election was seeking to require in the first place.
If I read this correctly, a supermajority of voters decided that a supermajority should not be required to amend the constitution.
Sounds like a win to me.
That is correct. Such a delicious win.
One part of the proposal that wasn’t getting as much attention is that it upped the requirement for ballot measures from having to get signatures in 44 districts (half of them) to needing signatures in all 88. That was to try and suppress grass roots efforts from even getting on the ballot. Such an undemocratic bunch of chucklefucks.
Holy shit. That would have meant almost no grassroots ballot measures would get off the ground. People would be forced to hire groups all across the state to drive and get signatures from random rural fuck off counties.
That’s a bingo.
terrifying. Here in Aus my state requires a simple majority. There would be riots, good on you Ohio.
It also removed the signature curing period, meaning that there is no second chance to get more signatures or any of the originals get thrown out. For example, there is a recreational marijuana initiative that people are trying to get on the ballot in November. When they turned in signatures, it was found that they were, iirc, 639 signatures short. Under the current rules (which will remain) they had 10 days to come up with what they needed. Last I saw, they had gotten over 6,000, so that’s cool.
Did they sneak it in as part of issue 1?
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Yay! Proud to say I was a part of this as were my wife and daughter! We all voted early on Saturday. Huge kudos to the MASSIVE turnout to shoot this down, sometimes you can be alright fellow ohioans.
If this is an indication of anything, how does the GOP feel about their chances going into next year knowing that they’re the party that gutted abortion rights? Yeah you’re not winning presidency and you can kiss those mid-terms goodbye too, assholes.
The only way these assholes are gonna win anything, is if they abuse their power within Congress and the Supreme Court.
Oh don’t worry, if they see any chance to abuse their power and potentially get away with it, they won’t even dream about giving it a second thought.
Yet another instance of the GOP getting their asses handed when abortion rights are on the ballot.
Dems need to lean into this in the general.
This is the roadmap for swing states. Especially rust-belt or blue-collar states. Abortion, personal freedom and autonomy. These elections are better than polls. This is how you win, dems. Branch off of it, but for goodness’ sake hammer it home.
Edit: spelling
It’s at 58% reporting. I’m not relaxing until it’s at 80%+.
I voted three weeks ago, but this whole time I’ve been wondering if I can stay in this state if this managed to pass. My hope is that the No vote comes to 60%; the irony would be delicious.
Edit: Okay, it’s 91% reporting at 56.6% No. I feel good about this one. Good work folks!
It’s at 70% reporting now. The AP called it saying it was impossible to switch to a yes given the districts reporting. The “no” still has a healthy lead at 57%. Pretty sure Ohio kicked the GOP right in the proverbial balls. Also, (at the moment) 2.3 MILLION voters turned out for an August special election with this being the only issue?!
EDIT: Just hit 80% reporting and still at a 57% no. Fuck yeah fellow ohioans!
EDIT 2: Just crossed 90% reporting and still at a 57% no. Democracy wins!
@0110010001100010 @Chetzemoka @kaitco
I don’t have a horse in this race but I wanna cheer anyway. \O/
If you’re American, you definitely do. Republicans have tried this same strategy before and will try again. Like notorious conservative apologist, David Frum, said, “If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
Celebrate this win with us
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Republicans purposely made this seemingly decent legislation complete shit. It makes sense to have a higher threshold for constitutional amendments. But 60% makes it nearly impossible. And this did not require its own 60% bar to pass. And it required getting signatures from all districts instead of just half which would mean only larger organizations could do it. All of it was bullshit. They went for a very thinly veiled power grab and the people told them to fuck off. Well done Ohio.
Perhaps I’ve been too harsh on Ohio…
Smart move Ohio voters!
