Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday supported a prospective August election as a way to change the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments.
Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced resolutions to raise the initiative petition voting threshold to 60 percent to amend the state Constitution.
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has indicated that his caucus is considering whether they should place the question on the ballot in a statewide August special election.
However, Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill (HB) 458 into law earlier this year, drastically altering the state’s election laws, including requiring a photo ID and eliminating August elections.
Last week, two Republican state Senators introduced Senate Bill (SB) 92 to allow Ohio to hold special elections in August for certain purposes to move the process forwards.
LaRose stated at a news conference on Tuesday that a statewide election in August wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Although he does not support holding August elections in general, he would support holding one for a statewide issue.
“As a course of action, normal course of doing business, yes, I do not believe in having elections in August as a normal way of holding elections. But if the state legislature decides to hold an election in August, it’s not unusual. Generally as a normal course of business, year in and year out, allowing local municipalities, for example, or whatever, you know, local school districts or local tax sewer districts or whatever else, to have a sneaky levy when nobody’s paying attention is problematic. A statewide issue is a very different thing,” LaRose said.
LaRose made his remarks before two committee hearings on the Senate resolution slated to take place this week. The proposal needs to pass both the House and Senate by May 10th to be put on an August ballot.
Moderate Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), who collaborated with the Democrats to win the speaker-ship over GOP pick state Representative Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) has said he is against holding an August election.
“I am not for changing the rules willy nilly at a whim when it comes to changing our constitution,” Stephens said.
Some Republican lawmakers have said that “killing” the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment was part of Stephens’ deal with the Democrats.
Local governments and school districts are only permitted to hold elections in August under Ohio’s new election legislation if they are experiencing a financial emergency. LaRose informed lawmakers last year that just a small minority of people cast ballots during August elections, citing a Hamilton County special election in 2020 that saw a turnout of 11.8 percent.
According to LaRose, if people are excited about the question on the ballot they will participate in an August special election.
“We believe in convenient elections in Ohio, but the single biggest factor that determines how much turnout we’ll see is how excited people are about the candidates or the issues that are on the ballot. I hope that if there’s a question of changing the Ohio Constitution, Ohioans are excited to participate in that election and that we have a higher than normal turnout for an August election, if that’s the decision of the General Assembly,” LaRose said.
Boards of elections, according to LaRose, could hold an election in August if they had the resources, at least $10 to $15 million, and enough time to plan, at least 100 days in advance. But he added that the Legislature has the final say in the matter.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Frank LaRose” by Frank LaRose.
