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Ohio Referendum 1, Alcohol Prohibition and the New Crabbe Act (1920)
Referendum 1 was about state prohibition and its enforcement. It was an attempted veto referendum of a statute, HB 620 (the Crabbe Act), enacted by the Ohio State Legislature.
A "yes" vote was a vote to uphold the state legislature's enactment of what was known as "The New Crabbe Act" in contradistinction to the legislature's first Crabbe Act, which it enacted in 1919. Both Crabbe Acts were state legislation to enforce prohibition. The first Crabbe Act was also subjected to a veto referendum on November 4, 1919, when Ohio voters weighed in on Referendum 2. In 1919, the state's voters narrowly rejected the first Crabbe Act. The Supreme Court of the United States later rejected the results of the election on Referendum 2.[1]
Election results
| Referendum 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 1,062,470 | 57.91% | ||
| No | 772,329 | 42.09% | ||
The New Crabbe Act
The New Crabbe Act, which was unsuccessfully targeted by Referendum 1, provided that mayors, justices of the peace, various judges, and other law enforcement officials would be paid "additional money beyond their normal pay whenever they arrested, convicted, and fined violators of the Eighteenth Amendment. Many legal officials sought to extend their jurisdiction into nearby cities to arrest and prosecute more violators and to enhance the judges' paychecks."[1]
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