Ohio Representative Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) has introduced HJR 5, a proposed state constitutional amendment. Current law requires a petition of 10% of the last gubernatorial vote to get a constitutional initiative on the ballot, and 6% for a statute. The proposal would raise these to 12.5% and 7.5%.
Also the measure would say that neither type of initiative could pass unless it received a popular vote of at least 60%. Currently a majority is enough.
The proposal would also make it illegal to pay petition circulators. However, in 1988 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Meyer v Grant that states are not permitted to outlaw the practice of paying circulators. Thanks to Steve Linnabary for this news.
Now standard ANTI-Democracy machination by a HACK gerrymander oligarch.
The USA is now about as monarchy/oligarchy EVIL rotted as the Germany regimes in 1914 and 1939.
PR and AppV
The initiative process in Ohio is already difficult enough. This proposal would make it almost unusable, and it should there for be rejected.
Phooey! . . . and after courts struck down Ohio’s appropriation-linked referendum-proofing . . . in _State ex rel. Ohioans for Fair Dists. v. Husted_, 130 Ohio St.3d 240, 2011-Ohio-5333.