Ohio voters resoundingly reject Issue 1
Issue 1 was a ballot initiative developed by the GOP dominated state legislature and financed by a very conservative Illinois shipping magnate to increase the threshold to amend the state constitution from 50%+1 to 60%+1. It was promoted in order to defeat a reproductive rights amendment scheduled for a vote in the General Election in November 2023.
Early polling predicted that the reproductive rights amendment would get about 58% of the vote in November. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the heavily gerrymandered Ohio Legislature thought it would be a good idea to increase the threshold to 60%+1 before the November election. They decided to put it on the ballot for a Special August Election even though they had earlier passed a law prohibiting August Special Elections because the turnout is so low, and the costs are high.
Ohio voters had a very different idea; they turned out in droves for early voting and soundly defeated Issue 1. With 95% of votes counted, it looks as if the no votes are about 57%. The predominantly no votes came from the big Ohio cities like Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati and the mid-sized cities like Dayton, Toledo and Akron, the surrounding suburbs, and the college towns. The primarily yes votes came from the more sparsely populated farm counties and the small towns.
There were likely many issues at play in the overwhelming defeat of Issue 1. The first is strong support for reproductive rights after the Dobbs decision that cuts across party lines; the second is revulsion at the GOP power play to take away/curtail people’s democratic rights under the initiative and referendum, and the third is that the Ohio Legislature is so heavily gerrymandered that the Republican majority badly misread the will of their constituents.
There are other big issues that may be coming up through the voter initiative and referendum process such as a proposal for a long delayed increase in the state’s minimum wage or an elimination of partisan gerrymandering. This is direct democracy at its best, and the Ohio GOP was ill-advised to seek to short circuit this safety valve for voters’ discontent.