Buckeye Reporter

Ohio's Republican House Speaker is teaming up with groups like Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood to block an attempt to reform the state's constitution.

House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) says he supports House Joint Resolution 1, which would require petition-based statewide constitutional amendments to pass with 60 percent of the vote, not simple majorities. But with a May 10 deadline looming, he has so far refused to call it for a floor vote.

Cheering Stephens' obstinance: a roster of left-leaning advocacy groups who typically oppose his decisions, and sometimes even publicly loathe him 

The list includes Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black Lives Matter Dayton, Pro-Choice Ohio, Black Out and Proud, the Cleveland Bi+ Network, Columbus New Liberals, Democrat Socialists of America-Cleveland, Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens, New Voices for Reproductive Justice and the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

Failing to win legislative majorities in Ohio, the groups hope to use the state's more liberal constitutional amendment requirements to impose legislation via statewide ballot initiative, where they can win with less than a majority of the vote.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose (R-Akron) backs the reform. He says that in the current system, it is too easy for well-funded "special interests" to win low-turnout, off-year elections, end-running the legislature.

"Because of the ease of amending Ohio’s founding document, the Ohio Constitution has become a tool used by special interests to permanently change our form of government to their liking," he said. "In just the past three petition-based amendment campaigns, special interests have spent more than $50 million on media advertising, political consultants, and more to support their passage"

“If you have a good idea and feel it deserves to be within the framework of our government, it should require the same standard for passage that we see in both our United States Constitution and here in our own state legislature," La Rose said. "Requiring a broad consensus majority of at least 60% for passing a petition-based constitutional amendment provides a good-government solution to promote compromise.”

Stephens said he is “not for changing the rules willy-nilly at a whim when it comes to changing our constitution.”

Since 2000, there have been 16 petition-based constitutuonal amendments proposed in Ohio; five have passed and eleven have failed. 

Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming all currently require supermajority votes to pass constitutional amendments.

Last year, there were six abortion-related statewide ballot measures across the U.S., the most in history, according to Ballotpedia.com.

In 2022, California approved a state constitutional right to "reproductive freedom," requiring state taxpayers to guarantee funding of abortions and contraceptives for all state residents.

Stephens' district is in Lawrence County, on the state's southern border. Kitts Hill is 30 miles north of Huntington, West Virginia.