State leaders still think it's too easy to amend the Ohio Constitution

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Should it become more difficult to amend the state’s constitution? That’s a question that has been debated at the statehouse for years and is now coming back up.

Back in 2023, Ohio Republicans voted to create an August special election in order to ask voters one question: Should it take a simple majority or 60% of Ohioans to amend the state constitution? 57% of Ohio voters ultimately decided to keep the status quo, which is a simple majority.

The question brought out hundreds of protesters, hours of debate, and millions of dollars were spent on the campaign on each side. Now, state leaders are bringing the conversation back up.

The Ohio Ballot Board must certify that a proposed constitutional amendment is only about one topic before petitioners can start collecting signatures to get their question on the ballot. Since the start of the year, the board has met twice to discuss citizen-led constitutional amendments.

At the most recent one, on May 14, Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-Ohio) took a “moment of chairman’s privilege.”

“This brings to mind — the fact that we are meeting for the second time within the last month — a warning that I had a few years ago,” LaRose said.

The warning, LaRose said, was that there would be “a real uptick in people attempting to legislate by constitutional amendment.” LaRose said in his opinion, that is not a proper way to govern.

“Legislation should be done by the legislature and that’s something to be discussed in this building going forward,” he said.

So, how do state leaders feel about trying to increase the threshold for a second time?

“I think it should be [increased],” Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. “I vote yes.”

“We will remain opposed to that,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said. “The petition process is already extremely difficult and burdensome for citizens to be able to exercise their right for direct democracy.”

Right now, in order to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot, nearly half a million signatures must be collected by petitioners from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Russo said the process, while difficult, gives Ohioans recourse when they do not agree with what legislators are doing.

“[Republicans] are not in line with where the public is on many issues and the public has pushed back,” Russo said. “And [Republicans] don’t like it when the public and the people use their power to push back.”

"As we have witnessed time after time, deep-pocketed dark money groups see the state constitution as an easy target for a constitutional amendment campaign because it can be changed with a simple majority vote," spokesperson for Ohio Senate Republicans John Fortney said. "Even the Ohio Democratic party had bylaws up until recently that required a 60% vote of its members to change its charter. Increasing the threshold is always a worthwhile discussion." 

In order to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution, lawmakers will either need to pass a resolution to put on the ballot or Ohioans would need to petition their own amendment.

Huffman said right now there are too many Ohioans looking to change the constitution, so that will create an uphill battle if they want to try and increase the passing threshold again.

“The folks who want to eliminate real estate tax in the state of Ohio, they don’t want it raised to 60%, qualified immunity folks,” he said. “I guess there may be good government folks who want it raised to 60%.”

While Republicans and Democrats may be torn on the proper action to take here, they do agree that Ohioans likely will not change their minds just two years after voting the question down.

“People tend to think about what is important to them, short of everybody steps back and says, ‘we really should raise the limit,’ which I don’t see that happening,” Huffman said.

“Undermining the ability of voters to have access to democracy through the ballot initiative process does undermine voters,” Russo said. “The voters made it very clear back in August of 2023 that they want to protect their right to direct democracy.”

A statehouse source told NBC4 there are not any current talks to increase the threshold but noted that the budget debate is taking up most of the air in the room right now.