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Final language for Issue 1 must be approved, as Ohio elections officials prep for a key deadline

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Monday’s Ohio Supreme Court decision on ballot summary language for Issue 1 came as a relief to elections officials, who are facing a key deadline this week. But the work on that wording for the summary of the redistricting overhaul isn’t over, as the Ohio Ballot Board still needs to meet Wednesday morning.

Backers of an amendment to change redistricting pack a hearing room for the Ohio Ballot Board meeting, where the panel would decide the ballot summary language that voters would see.
Backers Issue 1 to change redistricting pack a hearing room for the Ohio Ballot Board meeting, where the panel would decide the ballot summary language that voters would see. [Daniel Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
Majority Republican justices upheld six sections of the Republican-approved ballot language disputed by the group Citizens Not Politicians, but ordered the Ohio Ballot Board to rewrite and approve two other sections.

“They need to do that as soon as humanly possible because there are other tasks that boards of elections need to accomplish once the language is finally settled upon,” said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials. Federal law requires boards of elections to have military and overseas ballots ready to mail out on Friday, Sept. 20, which is 46 days before the election.

“The good news is that it’s a relatively small quantity of ballots. And most boards of elections do have the ability to print those within their office – they don’t have to go out of house to have those printed,” Ockerman said.

There were more than 25,000 military and overseas ballots mailed out from Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections in the last presidential election in 2020.

Another reason Ockerman said approval needs to happen soon is the potential for problems. There was such an issue last August, when the Ohio Supreme Court also ordered the Ohio Ballot Board to rewrite some of the language on Issue 1 – which at that time was the amendment to require 60% voter approval for future amendments.

Some ballots had to be reprinted when the office of Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent out the wrong language, which it blamed it on a “transcription error”. LaRose’s office is responsible for writing the ballot summary language for the Ballot Board to approve.

The Ohio Ballot Board meets Wednesday at 9:30am.