Columbus Dispatch. Similar story in Washington Post. The fight over the August special election to change Ohio’s direct democracy procedures for amending the state’s constitution, including raising the threshold for adoption from a majority to a 60% supermajority, is (or at least should be) of national, not just local, interest. Whatever one thinks of the majority-versus-supermajority debate, the way in which supermajority proponents have gone about using a low turnout special election in August in especially disturbing and seems downright hypocritical. If one thinks on the merits that constitutional change should occur only if an exceptionally high percentage of the citizenry supports the change, then if one is being consistent and principled, one would want the citizenry to consider such changes in high turnout, not low turnout, elections. But Ohio has been plagued recently by “ends justify the means” politics, to the severe detriment of self-government in the state. For those concerned about America becoming a pseudo-democracy along the lines of Hungary (for example), where elections occur but they are not especially representative of what the citizenry actually wants from its government, Ohio is a place to watch closely over the coming months and years.