COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Interest in Issue 1 remains high and so do the early voting numbers as the Aug. 8 special election approaches, and while state lawmakers at the Ohio Statehouse are urging different votes, they said it is important to head to the polls.

“It’s all about ensuring that the majority of voices in Ohio get to see changes they want to see for their families and communities,” House Assistant Minority Leader Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) said.

“The argument for it is pretty simple: it is protecting our state constitution,” Rep. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) said.

If Issue 1 passes, it would make it more difficult to both get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot as well as increasing the threshold to pass one. As it stands, to get a proposed amendment on the ballot, a group needs to gather signatures from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties; if Issue 1 passes, that would become all 88 counties.

“Grassroots organizations will basically have no way to put something on the ballot if Issue 1 passes,” Jarrells said. “It speaks to this extreme minority that can stop good policy from getting into our constitution to move conversations forward.”

“If there’s any sort of support at all for an issue, it should be very easy to get ballot signatures,” Ferguson said.

Under current law, a proposed amendment needs a simple majority of votes to pass, but Issue 1 is suggesting a 60% threshold instead.

“We do that at the United States level, it’s a very high bar, and we should be doing that in the state of Ohio,” Ferguson said. “Have a nice high bar to protect our constitution.”

“We are changing 111 years’ worth of precedent,” Jarrells said. “This is not good; this is not the right direction.”

While Jarrells and Ferguson laid out their case to vote on their side of issue 1, both called out what they said is hypocrisy from the other side.

“For a long time, we had Democrats actually wanting us to raise the bar for the constitution,” Ferguson said. “So now you’re getting your opportunity. Why are you changing your tune?”

“Something my Republican colleagues talked about is that this is going to prevent big spending from outside places and the reality is we’ve seen the exact opposite play out in this election,” Jarrells said. “There’s big spending happening from every walk of life across the U.S. coming into Ohio on Issue 1.”

But at the end of the day, Jarrells and Ferguson said their messages to voters are clear.

“It’s really about making sure that we are providing an argument to Ohioans that Issue 1 is about freedom, freedom to use your voice,” Jarrells said.

“If you want your constitution to be written and controlled by Ohioans, then you should be a ‘yes’ vote,” Ferguson said.