Secretary of State Frank LaRose was all decked out for Election Day this Tuesday, wearing his custom-made ‘I Voted’ sticker socks, hidden under his khakis, and a walkie-talkie that connected him with all 88 county boards of elections.
During a May election with just one statewide race—a legislative-led constitutional amendment—and dismal turnout, it’s hard not to think about future cycles, and LaRose certainly was. He and GOP Attorney General Dave Yost are fielding citizen-led efforts to make the ballot nearly every cycle.
Right now, there’s the referendum on Senate Bill 1, the anti-diversity, equity and inclusion law that bans faculty strikes at universities, and then more than one proposed constitutional amendment: one to end qualified immunity, another to end real property taxes. The latter is awaiting certification from Yost, which is due Friday.
Different interests are questioning the voters directly, rather than lobbying their elected officials. It’s become far too frequent, LaRose said.
“I don’t think that governing by constitutional amendment is a wise idea,” LaRose said Tuesday. “I think constitutional amendments should be rare.”
Ohio GOP executive and legislative leaders tried, and failed by nearly 7 points, to raise the constitutional amendment threshold in 2023—from 50% plus one to 60%.
“I don’t know whether there’s any appetite to do that again in the General Assembly, but if there were some effort like that to raise the bar on a constitutional amendment, I would be for that,” LaRose said.
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said he’s not sure whether there is a realistic path right now, even though he’s remains pro 60% to pass, as do others in his caucus.
“There may be good government folks who want it raised to 60%,” Huffman said Wednesday. “I think that it should be.”
Progressives saw back-to-back wins that year, defeating that Issue 1 in August 2023, and then again with an amendment codifying abortion rights.
Direct democracy, League of Women Voters Executive Director Jen Miller said, “is fundamental to Ohio.”
“We have had that right here in Ohio for constitutional amendments that are citizen-led since 1912,” Miller said. “And what we see over and over again, unfortunately, is that the lawmakers want to take that power away, they want to be able to have the power just for themselves to make laws.”
LaRose and Yost, who is running for governor in 2026, believe the petitions process needs adjusted in other ways, as well.
Over four years, Yost rejected the qualified immunity petition eight times prior to taking it to the U.S Supreme Court, which declined to consider his request to stay a preliminary injunction and forced him to certify the petition summary language.
When certifying the language “over his objections,” Yost added that his office would work on “legislation to reform the ballot initiative summary process to protect the integrity of Ohio’s elections.”
Some of the rejections came from Yost’s frustration with the title of the petition. LaRose believes amendment titles are too often written as slogans, he said, which could mislead voters.
But the Ohio Ballot Board, which LaRose heads, has final say over the actual language that voters see—and advocates have taken issue with how he has rewritten recent amendment efforts, including on abortion and gerrymandering.
(Note: This story has been edited to reflect the Ohio Ballot Board’s role in constitutional amendments.)
