Issue 1 loses statewide and in Ottawa County; Sandusky County voters favor the measure

While Ohioans soundly defeated Issue 1 at the polls in Tuesday's special election, Sandusky County voters went against the grain, voting 56.5% in favor of the ballot issue compared to 43.6% against.

According to unofficial results from the Sandusky County Board of Elections released Tuesday night, with 100% of the votes counted there were 9,227 yes votes for Issue 1 and 7,123 no votes.

Statewide, Issue 1 was defeated 57% to 43%, with about 3 million votes cast, according to unofficial final results.

In Ottawa County, more people voted against Issue 1 than for it, by a ratio of 51.3% against to 48.7% for the measure, according to unofficial final results from the county board of elections. The vote totals in the county were 6,817 against and 6,476 for Issue 1.

In Sandusky County, of the votes in favor of the issue, 8,077 were cast on Election Day, 805 were in-office votes, and 345 were absentee votes, the board of elections reported.

For the no votes, the total of 7,123 ballots against Issue 1 broke down to 5,395 on Election Day, 1,266 in-office votes, and 807 absentee votes.

With 58 of 58 precincts reporting in Sandusky County, the vote turnout for the special election was 41.37%, or 16,357 out of 39,542 registered voters.

By comparison, voter turnout for the May primary election in Sandusky County was 14.02%, according to the board of elections.

If passed, Issue 1 would have required 60% of the vote to enact a new constitutional amendment, compared to the current simple majority.

Citizens who wanted to place an amendment on the ballot would have had to collect signatures from at least 5% of the total number of voters in the last gubernatorial election in all 88 Ohio counties, compared to the current 44 counties.

The issue also would have eliminated a 10-day cure period to allow citizens to replace any signatures rejected as faulty by the secretary of state's office.

dyonke@gannett.com

Twitter: @davidyonke1

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Sandusky County voters go against state totals, favor Issue 1