Language on Issue 1 to be tweaked per Ohio Supreme Court order

OHIO — Issue 1 language will be tweaked by the Ohio Ballot Board after the Ohio Supreme Court found that the proposal’s summary was partially inaccurate, according to court documents.

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Issue 1 relates to abortion and other reproductive decisions in Ohio.

The ballot board will need to change parts of the summary. Specifically, the wording “the state of Ohio” to the “citizens of the state of Ohio,” when it comes to who is blocked from threatening Ohioan’s reproductive decisions, per an Ohio Supreme Court decision.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose chairs the Ohio Ballot Board. His office scheduled the meeting to reword the issue on Thursday at 9:30 a.m., at the Statehouse.

“The ballot language approved by the ballot board would not accurately tell the voters what they are being asked to vote on. Instead of describing a proposed amendment that would establish a right to carry out reproductive decisions free from government intrusion, the ballot language’s use of the term ‘citizens of the State’ would mislead voters by suggesting that the amendment would limit the rights of individual citizens to oppose abortion,” the court’s majority opinion read.

Two of the seven Ohio Supreme Court Justices agreed entirely on the decision, while the five others agreed in part and disagreed in part, according to the court documents.

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According to a majority opinion written by Justice Patrick Fisher, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost made an argument that “citizens of the State” and “the State” are the same as Ohio has a government “of the people,” but the court rejected it.

It was noted that the Ohio constitution doesn’t use the phrase “citizens of the state,” therefore the two are not synonymous.

This resulted in the currently approved language needing to be changed as it would not accurately tell the voters what they are voting on.

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