Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine spoke in support of State Issue 1 during an Oct. 19 campaign stop in Lima. Both DeWine and Issue 1, along with every other Republican statewide candidate, were poised to win their races Tuesday night.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
COLUMBUS — When it comes to the issues of bail reform and voting requirements, Ohio voters made their voices heard resoundingly on Tuesday.
Both State Issues 1 and 2 drew heavy support from voters, each garnering just over 77 percent of the vote Tuesday. Both issues will amend the state’s Constitution, with Issue 1 inserting a requirement for judges to consider public safety when determining bail and Issue 2 requiring that any state or local election participation in Ohio be restricted to U.S. citizens only.
Issue 1 also included language that called on judges to consider the seriousness of the offense, the accused person’s criminal record and the likelihood of the person appearing in court. For proponents of the measure, like Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, this amendment is a remedy to a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that prohibited public safety from being considered.
“It’s ridiculous that we have to have a constitutional amendment, frankly, but we do,” he said during a recent stop in Lima to promote the issue. “It really brings the power back to the people of the state and tells the Supreme Court, ‘Hey, guys, this is our state and you’re not going to tell us that judges can’t consider public safety.’”
Issue 2 amended the Constitution to say that only an American citizen above the age of 18 who had been registered to vote for at least 30 days could vote in elections. Promoted heavily by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the amendment was a way of preventing future legislation that could extend the vote to non-citizens for local elections.
Allen County resident Ida Johnson supported both issues.
“The first one sounded like common sense,” she said. “I voted yes on Issue 2; I don’t want non-citizens to vote. It’s the same if you go over to Britain. You can’t vote there if you are an American citizen.”
When it came to statewide officeholders and the state Supreme Court, Ohioans appear to have decided to stay the course and keep Republicans, including LaRose, at the helm.
Keeping the same trend going that led to Mike DeWine and Jon Husted keeping their positions as the state’s chief executives, each of the statewide officeholders were maintaining leads in their races. For Attorney General, Dave Yost defeated Jeffrey Crossman 60.4 percent to 39.6 percent, while Celina’s Keith Faber defeated Democratic challenger Taylor Sappington 59 percent to 41 percent. For Secretary of State, Frank LaRose defeated Democrat and Elida native Chelsea Clark 59.5 percent to 39.4 percent, with independent candidate Terpsehore Tore Maras earning 1 percent of the vote. State Treasurer Robert Sprague of Findlay defeated challenger Scott Schertzer 58.8 percent to 41.2 percent.
In the Ohio Supreme Court, Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican, defeated Democrat Justice Jennifer Brunner in the race to replace outgoing Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor 56.3 percent to 43.7 percent. The other contested Supreme Court seats had both incumbents, Pat Fischer and Pat DeWine, both Republicans, winning their races. Fischer defeated Judge Terri Jamison 57.1 percent to 42.9 percent, while DeWine defeated Judge Marilyn Zayas 56.6 percent to 43.4 percent.
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391 or on Twitter @cmkelly419.
