On June 12, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion in State ex rel One Person, One Vote v Ohio Ballot Board, 2023-Ohio-1928. This is a lawsuit over the wording of the ballot measure that will be on the ballot in August 2023, making it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot and also making it more difficult for them to pass.

The ruling upholds the wording that says the measure “Elevates” the number of signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The plaintiffs had argued that “elevates” implies an improvement. They argued that the ballot should say that the measure “increases” the number of signatures, but the Court said “elevates” and “increases” mean the same thing. That part of the ruling was 4-3. The Court did order a few changes in the wording, but those changes aren’t as important as the issue of which verb to use. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the news about the decision.