Minority power grab: August election

It's concerning that lawmakers in Columbus are so sure Ohio voters will approve a reproductive rights bill in November that they voted to have a special election in August. This election will make that bill's approval more difficult by requiring a 60% majority to change the state's constitution for citizen-adopted law. State Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, joined by other House Democrats, holds signs against SJR 2 on the House floor after Republicans approved it on May 10, 2023. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal) Whatever happened to the party of law and order or that of fiscal responsibility? Who is to shoulder the burden of this rule-bending? Per usual, it's taxpayers at an estimated cost of $20 million for a special election. By this vote, supporters of this election hope to deny the majority of Ohio voters their right to change the state's constitution in the same way as has been available to them for the last 111 years. If 59.9% of the Ohio electorate favor changing the law, a landslide, then this gerrymandered group of Republican lawmakers — including each one of our local representatives — would invoke the minority rule power they are attempting to grant themselves through this rushed and expensive election. It is a political power grab, and all of our local representatives are on the "yes" side of it. State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, is a co-sponsor of the legislation, and local state reps D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, Gary Click, R-Vickery, and Dick Stein, R-Norwalk, all voted in favor of it. We still believe that the majority rules; we wish they did also. Statehouse Republicans hope to change the state constitution to make it more difficult for others to change the state constitution with a majority vote. They want the question decided in a special election in August, an option eliminated just last year because August elections generate the lowest turnout of voters, by far, and are expensive to carry out. It's difficult to know which characteristic is more pronounced by this vote for a special election: the hypocrisy in it, the arrogance or the irony. It will be a one-issue election in August if obvious legal challenges to the lawmakers' vote for it do not prevail. It is our opinion this is not a good precedent and an example of expensive and ambitious political maneuvering with the price tag placed squarely on the back of taxpayers.