Issue 1 will have a huge impact on Ohio if it passes.

It’s a very unusual election as only one statewide issue is on the Aug. 8 special election ballot.

It’s the first time in 97 years since a state ballot measure was decided in August. That was for a special assessment tax that was rejected soundly.

Ohioans are not used to rare August elections.

Just look at the 8 percent turnout in the August 2022 election, which was an atypical second primary because of unconstitutional state legislative maps. It was the poorest turnout for a statewide election since numbers have been recorded.

August elections were largely used by communities and school districts in efforts to sneak a tax increase by voters who weren’t aware they had something upon which to vote.

That was why the Republican-controlled state Legislature decided in December to eliminate August special elections except for rare exceptions. A statewide constitutional amendment was not one of them, but the Ohio Supreme Court ruled this Aug. 8 election could proceed.

As for the actual constitutional amendment, if it passes it would increase the percentage needed for all future amendments to be approved.

It is currently a simple majority: 50 percent plus one. That simple majority is all Issue 1 needs to become a constitutional amendment.

Issue 1 would increase that threshold to at least 60 percent approval for all future constitutional amendments.

That includes an abortion rights amendment that will be on the Nov. 7 ballot after being certified Tuesday as having enough valid signatures. Plenty of people on both sides say Issue 1 is an effort to stop the passage of that abortion rights proposal.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, six states have voted on abortion rights amendments. The amendments easily passed in California and Vermont, two Democrat-controlled states.

The approval rates were between 52 and 59 percent in the four others: Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky and Montana. Michigan leans Democrat while the three others are Republican. The percentages in those four states would not be enough for approval in Ohio if the threshold is raised to 60 percent.

For Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican and vocal proponent of Issue 1, that is fine.

Issue 1 opponents “want to try to ram through a radical agenda with a bare majority of 51 or 52 percent,” he said during a Tuesday debate on the issue.

Opponents say the proposal eliminates one person, one vote and gives control to the minority of voters.

“Issue 1 has been designed to give more power to politicians and to dilute the power of your vote, the people’s vote,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said in the same debate.

Also, if Issue 1 is passed, effective Jan. 1, 2024, proposed constitutional amendments would need at least 5 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election from all of the state’s 88 counties to qualify for the ballot rather than the current 44-county minimum. The overall minimum of 10 percent of all total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election to qualify for the ballot remains the same. But constitutional amendments would no longer have a 10-day “cure period” to get more signatures if the initial effort falls short.

Collecting at least 5 percent in every county is a high hurdle to overcome.

Supporters of Issue 1 say that’s appropriate as it shouldn’t be easy to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot and it gives the least-populated counties, which are often ignored in the signature process, some influence.

The backers of the abortion rights proposal needed 413,487 valid signatures and at least 5 percent from a minimum of 44 counties.

It was certified with 495,938 valid signatures at the 5-percent minimum from 55 counties.

Again, LaRose and other Issue 1 supporters say it should be hard to change the state constitution.

Russo said: “The bedrock of Ohio’s constitution has always been trust the people and for more than 111 years, Ohio’s right to citizen-led constitutional amendments has been a promise that when the government is unresponsive or corrupt, the people have the final check on our government with a simple majority.”