COLUMBUS — Ohioans overwhelmingly voted in favor of two state constitutional amendments Tuesday, changing the way judges set bail and modifying voter eligibility requirements.
Final unofficial results from the Ohio Secretary of State show Issue 1 and Issue 2 each earning around 77% of the nearly 4 million votes casts for them.
Issue 1: bail reform and public safety
Issue 1 requires judges to consider public safety when setting bail. Referred to as the Community Safety Amendment, it also changes the branch of government responsible for setting bail amounts and conditions.
The amendment eliminates the Ohio Supreme Court’s authority to establish bail-setting procedures. Instead, it grants individual judges authority to come up with bail amounts and other conditions.
Current Ohio procedures do not let judges account for public safety when determining cash bails. Instead, judges must focus on the person’s risk of non-appearance in court.
Issue 1 defines public safety factors as seriousness of the offense and the person’s criminal record.
This amendment blocks local governments from allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.
It specifies that to be eligible to vote in state and local elections a person must be a U.S. citizen, older than 18 and registered to vote where they are legal residents for at least 30 days.
The amendment says local governments cannot make their own rules when it comes to non-citizen voting eligibility.
On Tuesday, Ohio became the sixth state in the U.S. with a constitution that specifically states that “only” a citizen can vote in an election. The other states with similar language include, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and North Dakota.
Louisiana voters face a similar decision in December.
There are some U.S. cities that allow non-citizen voting, such as New York City, San Fransisco and others in California, Vermont, Maryland and Maine.
Federal law states only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections, a statute enacted in 1996.
The issue came about after Yellow Springs’ council in 2020 adopted a charter amendment that allowed its 30 non-citizens to vote in local elections. The action led Secretary of State Frank LaRose to issue a directive, saying that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections.
Of Ohio’s 11.6 million residents, 2% are not U.S. citizens, according to 2020 U.S. Census data.
