Ohio has enough election workers for upcoming referendum: Secretary of State LaRose

As Ohio prepares to for a special election this week that will feature an initiative to raise the vote threshold to amend the state constitution, Secretary of State Frank LaRose is confident election officials will be able to handle the proceedings.

Appearing on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show, LaRose on Monday addressed concerns that counties may not have enough election officials to handle the contest.

"Great news is that we worked hard over the weekend," he said. "[W]e worked with groups all over the state and all of our boards of elections are ready to go now with an adequate number of election officials. I've always set a high bar for our elections officials, we want to have a reserve force a backup group ready to go. And so I set a high target of 115% of their required allocation. There are a few counties that haven't quite reached that but they're all at 100% of where they need to be for tomorrow."

Ohio currently requires a simple majority to amend its constitution. The August contest seeks to raise that threshold to 60% of the vote ahead of a November referendum on enshrining abortion rights in state law. LaRose, however, warned that it was not merely the abortion matter the August initiative seeks to block, but also a litany of other radical proposals.

"Yeah, abortion is the most immediate one, because it's on the ballot this November," he said. "[I]t would take away parental rights, it would even open the door to underage children being subjected to gender transition, which is child abuse, without parental involvement. But what comes next is a massive increase in minimum wage. They're gathering signatures right now to put that on the ballot."

"They're gathering signatures to get rid of qualified immunity, which protects police officers when they're out there protecting and serving our communities," LaRose went on. "That's not something we want to see in Ohio. The reason why the Farm Bureau is backing a yes vote on issue one is that there's an effort by radical groups like PETA and others to rewrite livestock care standards into our constitution that would make it impossible to run a farm in our state. And that's just the beginning."

"We're talking about protecting against a radical abortion amendment that would make Ohio the most extreme state in the nation. We're talking about protecting our police officers from a group that now wants to get rid of qualified immunity in Ohio," he said. "We're talking about protecting our Second Amendment rights, farmers, business owners. Really this one is a really crucial election."

"You got to have 60% to amend our constitution. Fifty percent plus one: that bare majority is great for policymaking. And that'll continue to be the case," he added. "If you want to change the Ohio Revised Code, it only takes 50% plus one through our citizen-initiated process of changing the law. But if you want to change our state's founding document, you should be able to build a broader consensus."

"If the radical left is successful in Ohio with making an end run around our conservative state legislature and using our constitution to drive a dangerous agenda, they're coming for your state as well," he warned. "They know that if it works in Ohio, it will work in your state. And so that's why we're on the front lines of liberty here in the Buckeye State fighting to make sure that we vote yes on issue one."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.