Our feature OKI Wanna Know is your opportunity to get an answer to that weird little question lots of people seem to ask but don't know the answer to. This week, we head to the ballot box with WVXU's Bill Rinehart.
Matteo Dall'Ara asked about elections.
"What I want to know is how the issues on the ballot get numbered, because I saw different numbering like Issue 1, Issue 2."
The director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections says that's a really good question about a process that is fairly complicated. Sherry Poland says there's a hierarchy, and state issues always come first.
"The issue for state numbers is assigned by the Ohio Secretary of State, in accordance with state law," she says. "So your state issue number is always going to be the same statewide."
She says there's been a change in how those numbers are issued, but we'll get back to that.
"State law tells us the next group of issues appearing on the ballot would be those submitted by the county. The next group are municipalities, followed by any issues submitted by townships," she says. "And lastly school, or what we refer to as other districts."
Poland says that would cover things like a parks district.
State law also calls for a rotation, where the last shall be first.
"Because school districts and other districts appeared last this year, they'll appear first next year."
Poland says that's for fairness. It addresses voter fatigue; on longer ballots, some voters give up before reaching the end.
Numbers aren't issued in Hamilton County until after the 60th day before the election, to accommodate any latecomers.
Recent changes to ballot numbering
At the state level, there's been a shift in how issues get numbered. Poland says some voters were confused in 2023.
"When we had a statewide issue on the ballot in August, that was Issue 1, followed by another state issue on the ballot so closely together in November that was state Issue 1."
The August Issue 1 was about getting issues on the ballot. The November Issue 1 was about abortion — two very different things with the same name in a very short period of time.
Poland says the state assembly decided the first and only state issue on the ballot in 2024 would be Issue 1.
"And state issues placed on the ballot after that will go in consecutive order, all the way until they hit state issue number 500."
After 500, the count starts again, with Issue 1. That will have a downstream effect.
If there are three state issues next year, they'll be numbers 2, 3, and 4.
Because of the rotation, 2026 will put schools and others at the top of the ballot, so the first issue will be 5. Then townships, then cities and villages, and finally, counties.
"Now once we start getting up into those higher numbers, that's something that we'll have to weigh," she says. "By numbers something (like) Issue 210, would that be confusing to voters? That's something we haven't quite decided."
If there is no state issue, the local issues in Hamilton County will start with 1.
Poland says this year there are no state or county issues up for a vote in Hamilton County, so the first issue there will be from the city of Cincinnati.
That's the way Hamilton County does it, and that's the recommended practice from the Ohio Secretary of State's Office.
"Every county in the state of Ohio has to follow that same grouping I described, as far as the group that appears first in that rotation," she says. "But after that point, how you assign numbers is completely up to the local board. Our board has a policy stating that within the group, we will place them in alphabetical order."
What about Indiana and Kentucky?
Indiana and Kentucky don't allow citizen-backed initiatives on the ballot. That's something only a legislative body can do, and they don't do it often. So, no numbering system is necessary.
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe says in Kentucky, they don't put numbers on ballot issues. She says state statute explains how an issue will be labeled and worded.
"I mean, they get that specific. If you had a wet-dry election in Kentucky, it specifically tells you what the question is. They don't leave it up to chance. You must ask this question."
Read more:
