For far too long, Ohio’s Constitution has been far too susceptible to efforts by outside groups and special interests seeking to alter our governing document to achieve their own ends. We have repeatedly watched as special interests buy their way onto the statewide ballot, and then spend millions of dollars drowning the airwaves seeking to secure permanent, fundamental changes to our state by a vote margin of 50 percent plus one vote. The Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment, which I introduced as House Joint Resolution 1, will help prevent these terrible public policy proposals from becoming law by raising the threshold for adopting constitutional amendments to a 60 percent.

America’s Founders ensured the United States Constitution was protected against outside influence and monied interests by requiring a supermajority vote for amendments — two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress and three-fourths vote of state legislatures. It’s time to similarly protect the Ohio Constitution. If readers were to wake up tomorrow and read that Facebook, or Exxon, or Norfolk Southern, were spending billions of dollars to collect signatures and place a railroad-industry-friendly “Norfolk Southern Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution for a nationwide popular vote, readers would almost assuredly find that absurd. Yet, that’s precisely what happens in Ohio repeatedly.

For example, in recent elections, left-wing activist groups placed a proposed amendment on the ballot to effectively legalize drugs and reduce prison sentences for violent criminals. Another effort would have legalized marijuana and limited commercial growing rights to 10 pre-selected landowners, using our Ohio Constitution to create an outright monopoly. If you attempt to actually read the Ohio Constitution — which has become bloated to over 67,000 words as a result of constant amendments — you will see another outside interest group succeeded in writing individual parcel numbers for its own casinos into the document. Moreover, in the last three petition-based amendment campaigns, outside groups spent more than $50 million trying to advance initiatives. Vulnerability of Ohio’s Constitution also was highlighted in the ongoing corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, when it was revealed major corporate interests made campaign contributions to a dark money group attempting to amend the Constitution through a ballot initiative to double the length of time Householder could serve as speaker.

Enough is enough. We don’t allow such foolishness regarding the U.S. Constitution; we should not tolerate it in our state Constitution. Public policy proposals of this sort should be debated in the state Legislature, by elected legislators, where they are subject to revisions, and even repeal, as circumstances change, rather than being locked into our Ohio Constitution where they are incredibly difficult to change.

It should be noted that Ohio already is among the minority of states that even permit constitutional amendments by initiative petition — 32 states permit no constitutional amendments proposed by outside groups. Of the 18 states that do allow constitutional amendments by initiative petition, nine states –red and blue — have added some form of supermajority requirement for adoption, including Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. For example, Florida requires a 60 percent vote for adoption, Colorado requires 55 percent vote to approve constitutional amendments, and New Hampshire requires 66 percent vote to amend its constitution.

Opponents of the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment claim raising the vote threshold to 60 percent will somehow make amendments to the document impossible. This is nonsense. In fact, since 2008, 14 of the 21 proposed constitutional amendments have passed with 60 percent or better vote margin. In 2022, both proposed constitutional amendments passed with a 77 percent vote margin. Stated simply, under the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment, good ideas will pass, but bad ideas will be easier to defeat.

If any group believes its idea is worthy of inclusion in Ohio’s Constitution, then it should be able to earn the widespread public support that 60 percent vote margin requires. H.J.R. 1 is good policy. It should be adopted by the Ohio General Assembly and placed on the ballot for Ohioans’ consideration as soon as possible.

State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, is serving his second term for the 12th Ohio House District.