1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention

Ohio abortion foes are banking on a low-turnout August election. In Kansas, that didn’t go so well.

BY: - May 8, 2023

Supporters of the push to make it a lot harder for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution have given many, sometimes-inconsistent reasons for wanting to do it. But clearly a major one is to try to block an abortion-rights amendment that is currently in the works. To pull off the maneuver, abortion opponents are trying […]

Billionaire backing effort to raise Ohio amendment threshold funded election deniers, Jan. 6 rally

BY: - May 2, 2023

An out-of-state donor who wants to make it a lot harder for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution has a history of supporting candidates who falsely deny the results of the 2020 presidential election — and he's a major supporter of a group that helped organize the rally on Jan. 6, 2021 that led to a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of five former attorneys general on Monday added their names to a swelling group that is opposed to the move. They join four former governors — two Republicans and two Democrats — more than 200 groups of all political stripes, and a group representing the state's election workers have all come out in opposition to the plan.

Ohio SOS gives yet another reason to make it a lot harder for voters to amend Constitution

BY: - April 14, 2023

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Wednesday offered another rationale for making it much more difficult for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution. Now he’s saying it’s needed to fight a possible power grab like one that grew out of a massive bribery and money-laundering scandal. But LaRose didn’t mention in his op-ed that […]

A Charter of Democracy: Teddy Roosevelt’s speech to the 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention

BY: - March 31, 2023

The Ohio Capital Journal is publishing below, in full, Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 speech to the Ohio Constitutional Convention. The speech features many themes with vast critical relevance to what is happening in Ohio government in our modern times, and acts as a beautiful explanation of the values and ideas at the heart of our American […]

COMMENTARY

A point-by-point refutation of LaRose and Stewart’s arguments for attacking Ohio voters

BY: - December 8, 2022

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose seems to be big mad at being called out for attacking Ohio voters’ democratic power at the ballot box, after leading a proposal to raise the threshold for amendments from 50% to 60%. State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, has become the legislative sponsor for the scheme. Because their arguments […]

COMMENTARY

In 1912, Ohio voters asserted their democratic authority. Now Ohio Republicans want to rip it away

BY: - December 1, 2022

Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart have launched a frontal assault on voters’ ability to amend our state constitution, putting their knives at the neck of 110 years of citizen-led democratic progress in the Buckeye State. Thinking that Ohioans are stupid and gullible enough to relinquish our democratic powers […]