"Ohio Voted" stickers await voters after they cast their ballots at the Meadowbook Golf Club in Clayton, Ohio Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Ohio Republicans voted to bring back special August elections last Wednesday — which they just voted to abolish last December — in an attempt to rush the approval of two bills that could block a citizen-led abortion rights initiative from appearing on the state’s ballot this November.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) is pushing to spend millions of dollars on a special election this August in order to get House Joint Resolution 1 passed before November’s election. HJR 1 would work with Senate Joint Resolution 2, which the state Senate has already passed, to make it significantly harder for Ohio voters to pass citizen-led initiatives during elections.

SJR 2 and HJR 1 raise requirements for citizen-led initiatives from 50% + 1 “YES” votes to a supermajority of 60%, letting a minority of voters determine the outcome of popular state issues. The resolutions would also require signature collection in all 88 counties instead of just 44 for an initiative to qualify for the ballot, and they remove the “cure period” that grants time for campaigns that fall short of signatures to collect more after the deadline.

These requirements would effectively make passing citizen-led initiatives impossible, a right that Ohioans have held since 1912.

State Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) and Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) introduced SJR 2 and HJR 1 earlier this year as a response to an abortion rights amendment that got approved to collect signatures to appear on this November’s ballot. The amendment would expand abortion access in the state, embedding in Ohio’s constitution that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.”

The resolutions also likely come in response to the shocking failures in Kansas and Kentucky last year of initiatives to repeal the states’ right to an abortion. Some political analysts say that the issue of abortion has energized voters after the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the federal right to an abortion last summer, causing a groundswell of voters when abortion is directly on the ballot.

The resolutions also come after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed Senate Bill 23 into law in 2019, outlawing abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. That law is currently on hold by a Hamilton County court order. 

Huffman has directly stated that he wants a state-wide special election this August to make it harder for the reproductive freedom amendment to pass. “If we save 30,000 lives as a result of spending $20 million, I think that’s a great thing,” he told reporters after the Senate session to pass SJR 2 last month. “With this abortion issue looming that we set the ground rules for all of these things sooner rather than later.”

Just last December, Huffman and other Ohio Republicans got rid of August special elections when they passed House Bill 458, citing their high costs to taxpayers and historically low voter turnout. August special elections typically cost around $20 million to hold, with turnouts of around 10% of registered voters or less, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose stated in support of their elimination in 2021.

Though Senate Republicans have already approved their revival, House Republicans still need convincing. House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), who ultimately decides what legislation the House votes on, told reporters last month that he and county election officials are “frankly not interested” in having an election this August.

“We just voted to not have those anymore, just a few months ago,” he told reporters in March. “This is a cost to the taxpayers.”

On Monday, a bipartisan group of former Ohio governors and attorneys general signed letters denouncing the two resolutions, calling the 60% proposal “bad for Ohio.”

Huffman and Stephens did not respond to requests for comment.

The House would need to approve August elections by May in order for boards of election to have enough time to prepare. Without these elections, the House would need to pass HJR 1 by May in order to implement the changes to citizen-led voter initiatives in time for November.

Advocates for the citizen-led abortion initiative currently need to collect over 400,000 valid signatures from Ohio voters by July 5 to qualify the proposed amendment for November’s ballot.