COLUMBUS, Ohio – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday he still has not decided how he will vote on a pair of state ballot issues that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.
State Issue 1, a proposed amendment to the state constitution, would require judges to consider public safety when setting bail amounts for criminal defendants. State Issue 2 would bar non-citizens from voting in state elections, which already is illegal, but the prohibition would be added to the state constitution, which would clarify that non-citizens also can’t vote in local elections.
As he has in recent weeks when asked about either ballot issue, Ryan said following a campaign stop on Tuesday that he still has not yet reviewed them. He said his staff is collecting information on both measures, and that he also plans to talk it over with his wife, Andrea.
“I haven’t read them. I want to read them and dig into them before I make a decision,” Ryan said.
Ryan’s Republican opponent, J.D. Vance, has endorsed both state issues, calling them “common sense ballot issues.” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has too, and Nan Whaley, the Democratic candidate for governor, has said she will vote for both, although she called State Issue 2 “a solution in search of a problem,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Ryan and Vance are running to replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is retiring.
Republican state lawmakers placed State Issue 1 on the ballot in response to an Ohio Supreme Court ruling in January that upheld a $1 million reduction in bail for a Cincinnati man accused of murder. In a 4-3 split decision, with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor joining the court’s three Democrats, the court majority said a local judge improperly set bail at such a high amount that the defendant couldn’t afford to pay it. Prosecutors could have tried to deny bail in the case entirely, which involves a separate legal process, but didn’t do so, the ruling said.
Dissenting Republican justices wrote the decision would make the community less safe, and said local judges are in the best position to decide what bail should be.
Most Democratic state lawmakers voted against placing State Issue 1 on the ballot, saying it would unfairly allow rich criminal defendants to post bail while keeping poor ones in jail. Similar arguments are made by both Republican and Democratic proponents of changing the cash bail system.
Conservative advocacy groups and Republican lawmakers backing bail reform got on board with State Issue 1 though, since language in the proposed amendment would leave leeway for state lawmakers to make future changes to the bail system.
Bail reform has come up as an ancillary issue in the Senate race, after a 2019 interview came to light in which Ryan said he would support “eliminating” the cash bail system. Vance has cited the comments as part of his argument that Ryan and other Democrats are soft on crime.
“I haven’t looked at the specific language of the ballot initiative,” Ryan told reporters last week when asked about the line of attack last week. “But generally, I don’t think rich people should be able to buy their way out of jail.”
Republican state lawmakers placed State Issue 2 on the ballot in response to a local 2020 vote in Yellow Springs, a liberal village in southwest Ohio where residents voted to amend their village charter to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections. The measure never went into effect after Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose blocked it administratively, although nonpartisan researchers for the state legislature said it arguably could be legal under home rule.
Republican state lawmakers said the amendment would help protect the value of citizenship. Democrats in the Ohio House voted against placing the measure on the ballot, but Senate Democrats all voted in favor.
Some Democrats and law professors have argued the specific language in State Issue 2 could prevent 17-year-olds from voting in primary elections – they currently can do so as long as they will be 18 by the time the general election arrives – although proponents say that’s not the case. Opponents also have pointed out State Issue 2 reinforces the existing law that freezes new voter registrations within 30 days of an election.
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