Pro-choice Ohio voters get abortion referendum on fall ballot as GOP seeks to thwart constitutional amendment
A pro-choice Ohio group Tuesday submitted more than enough voter signatures to put a constitutional amendment defending abortion rights on the November ballot — even as Republicans seek to make it harder to actually pass it.
Secretary of State Frank LaRosa certified nearly 500,000 signatures for the amendment, more than enough to secure a place on the November ballot.
The show of pro-choice support comes as Republicans continue to back a measure in an Aug. 8 special election that would require all proposed constitutional amendments, including the upcoming abortion-rights one, to be passed by 60% instead of a simple majority.
Voters are already turning out in unexpectedly large numbers to cast votes in that election, suggesting the GOP move is unlikely to pass.
Early voting is running five times higher than projected and counties are reporting far higher-than-anticipated numbers of requests for absentee ballots in a special election that GOP hoped would raise the bar for measures like the planned abortion rights push.
The voter engagement in Ohio over the attempt to shift the goalposts for constitutional amendments is another sign that abortion continues to be political kryptonite for Republicans.
In the first week of early voting, 116,000 Ohio voters have cast ballots in the special election, a rate even higher than the similar period ahead of last year’s midterm general election, which featured a marquee U.S. Senate race clash.
Some 38,000 more voters have requested absentee ballots ahead of the rare mid-summer election.
While it’s unclear whether those voters plan to support or reject the proposal, A recent poll of Ohio voters shows they oppose it 57%-to-26% margin.
The same poll said nearly 60% of Ohio voters also support the amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which will be on the ballot in November.
The fight in Ohio indicates the political potency of abortion, even in Republican-leaning states or swing districts in blue states like New York.
Democrats believe the conservative U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade decision helped them avert a wipeout in the midterms. Democrats are capitalizing on the issue, seeking to put Republican lawmakers on the hot seat in New York, where majority pro-choice voters may be animated by pro-life GOP efforts to restrict abortion rights nationwide and to block pro-choice policies in the Pentagon and other federal agencies.
Democrats have called out moderate freshman New York Republicans like Westchester County’s Rep. Mike Lawler, Rep. Brandon Williams and Rep. Marc Molinaro for going along with fellow GOP lawmakers’ pro-life budget maneuvers when they earlier vowed to avoid taking sides on abortion.
New York Democrats also plan to spend $20 million to ensure an amendment to codify abortion in the state Constitution is passed next year.
