|
Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2023 12:30:28 GMT
It’s little mystery why Ohio Republicans snuck a late initiative onto the ballot, just months after the GOP-dominated Legislature passed a law banning August referenda at the local level, on the reasonable grounds that voter participation rates are lower during the dog days of summer. In 2019, the heavily gerrymandered Legislature passed a deeply unpopular bill prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they are pregnant — without exceptions for rape or incest. The law is currently on hold, pending judicial review. In response, reproductive rights advocates secured enough petition signatures to put a referendum before the voters this November; if it passes, abortion rights will be enshrined in the Constitution, beyond the Legislature’s ability to meddle. Given current polling, Republicans are expected to lose the November vote, so they’re trying to change the rules mid-game. The gambit is so transparent that even two former GOP governors, Robert Taft and John Kasich, have come out in opposition. The struggle over popular governance is an old one. As is the case today, many state legislatures in the early 20th century had grown unrepresentative, through a combination of malapportionment and gerrymandering. During the Progressive Era, states like Ohio adopted new political instruments, including popular referenda and ballot initiatives, to circumvent legislatures that no longer reflected the will of the voters. What’s at stake in today’s vote is not just abortion rights, but whether Ohio will turn its back on a hard-won legacy dating back over a century. Though dynamics in every state were different, powerful corporate interests increasingly controlled the economy during the early 20th century. Between 1897 and 1903 the number of “tight combinations,” or mega-holding corporations, grew from just seven to over 300, and these 300 corporations controlled 40 percent of all manufacturing in the United States. In a nation where state legislatures still elected United States senators, and where in many states, legislatures were not apportioned strictly by population, but rather, by town or county, corporate interests held considerable sway over government at all levels. They funded well-oiled machines that controlled the levers of government and easily exploited the electorate’s limited ability to affect the practical outcome of elections. Unsurprisingly, those who governed were increasingly removed from a rising population of urban workers, many of them non-Protestant immigrants who clamored for better public services, regulation of public utilities — like railroads, power and street cars — and new worker and consumer safety protections. While legislatures tended to be undemocratically apportioned, voters could often elect mayors and governors who favored progressive reforms. Such reforms included “home rule” charters, which freed cities from oversight by corrupt state legislatures, as well as new provisions such as ballot initiatives and referenda, which allowed a state’s voters to govern themselves directly, without legislative oversight. In 1896, the National Direct Legislation League met in St. Louis and selected 56 delegates from 37 states who would lead the charge for these innovative electoral reforms. California, under progressive Governor Hiram Johnson, and Wisconsin, under the progressive Governor Robert LaFollette, were early trailblazers in direct democracy. But Ohio was not far behind.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2023 20:15:51 GMT
Once a swing state, Ohio has grown steadily redder in recent years. But it is also one of the most extreme cases in legislative and congressional gerrymandering in the country. By drawing maps that stack the decks in their favor, engaging in widespread voter registration purges that disproportionately affect young and minority voters and making it harder to register altogether, the legislative majority — even in defiance of the State Supreme Court, which has ruled some of these practices unconstitutional — has ensured for itself a lasting supermajority, seemingly in perpetuity.
But in attempting to ram an unpopular abortion ban down the voters’ throats, and in their cynical attempt to change the way referendums operate to preserve that widely detested law, the GOP majority may have overplayed its hand. To paraphrase Roosevelt, when a legislature becomes “misrepresentative,” a referendum can operate as a much-needed corrective.
Today’s vote will determine whether Ohioans preserve an important artifact of their Progressive Era legacy. As was the case in 1912, at issue is the very nature of what it means to govern and be governed.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2023 3:41:06 GMT
A special election is taking place in Ohio with a potential impact on abortion rights. Ohioans flocked to the polls to decide whether amending their state constitution should require a 60 percent threshold or a simple majority. NBC News’ Ali Vitali has the latest on what this may mean for other states in the future.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.
The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, rather than the 60% supermajority that was proposed. Its supporters said the higher bar would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups.
Voter opposition to the proposal was widespread, even spreading into traditionally Republican territory. In fact, in early returns, support for the measure fell far short of former President Donald Trump’s performance during the 2020 election in nearly every county.
Dennis Willard, a spokesperson for the opposition campaign One Person One Vote, called Issue 1 a “deceptive power grab” that was intended to diminish the influence of the state’s voters.
“Tonight is a major victory for democracy in Ohio,” Willard told a jubilant crowd at the opposition campaign’s watch party. “The majority still rules in Ohio.”
President Joe Biden hailed Tuesday’s result, releasing a statement saying: “This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won.”
A major national group that opposes abortion rights, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called the result “a sad day for Ohio” while criticizing the outside money that helped the opposition — even though both sides relied on national groups and individuals in their campaigns.
Republican lawmakers who had pushed the measure — and put it before voters during the height of summer vacation season — explained away the defeat as a result of too little time to adequately explain its virtues to voters. A main backer, Republican Senate President Matt Huffman, predicted lawmakers would try again, though probably not as soon as next year.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2023 13:42:58 GMT
|
|