Delivering a win for abortion rights advocates, Ohio’s Issue 1 will fail, the Associate Press projects. The Republican-backed ballot initiative would have increased the threshold to amend the state’s constitution, making it more difficult for a measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution to pass later this year.
A “yes” vote on Issue 1 meant that constitutional amendments, including the abortion amendment, would have needed 60% support, rather than the existing minimum of 50% plus one. The increased threshold would have been put into place immediately if Issue 1 had passed.
Issue 1 also would have created more strict signature requirements for citizen-led measures to appear on the ballot. Currently, organizers must collect a number of signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election from half of Ohio’s 88 counties. If Issue 1 had passed, organizers would have needed signatures from all 88 counties.
I was being mostly sarcastic with my “why not just…” remark. While 50%+1 may prevent legislative overreach (as with any voter-passed initiative), it’s still a terrible barrier for a constitutional amendment because I have no faith that a simple majority will vote to protect or expand the rights and privileges of a minority. e.g. California’s Proposition 8 (an amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2008) passed with 52%.
My point was that, if the amendment threshold were 50%+1, it seems in the interest of anyone seriously wanting to pass an initiative through the voters would want to make it a constitutional amendment simply to prevent it from being declared unconstitutional by the court. That’s basically what happened in California – Prop 22 (an initiative banning same-sex marriage in 2000) was struck down in May 2008, then Prop 8 was introduced in June with essentially the same language at the constitutional level.
Granted, Prop 22 passed with over 61% and support for the ban dropped about 9 points in the 8 years in between, and some of that may have been because of the difference between statute and amendment. But I still feel we need better protection of minorities than “majority rule”, especially when called out so specifically in cases like this.
I would support a system in which enshrining rights in a constitution takes 50% + 1 but taking rights away requires a supermajority. Unfortunately, that’s not in the cards.
Semantics. It’s too easy to rephrase taking away a right as granting another right (or not mentioning rights at all).
And thus, which is the safer place to land? 40% of voters or a majority?
Constitutions are supposed to reflect supreme will of the people, not by just a bare majority. Amendments should be hard to pass for that reason. I favor 60% to pass an amendment.
That said, I’m arguing only the percentage threshold – the will of the people, all people in the jurisdiction considered equally for this purpose. The “signatures from all counties” portion of this Ohio issue violates that by giving greater weight (and impedance) to rural communities where organization is hard and populations are smaller. It would take only one county with low turnout to block serious consideration of meaningful issues that affect the entire state.
Heh, well as a nice twist, the will of the Ohio populace is that the constitution is not intended to be the “supreme will” of the people.