Ohio voters reject State Issue 1, maintaining simple majority to pass constitutional amendments

Voters in Ohio have rejected a measure that would have made amending the state constitution more difficult.

Ohio will maintain its existing simple majority requiring 50 percent plus one vote to pass a constitutional amendment in the state.

If Issue 1 passed an amendment would require signatures from all 88 counties, then a 60-percent statewide vote to pass it.

>> Ohio voters reject State Issue 1 - Special Election Results

Now that Issue 1 has failed, the focus will go to November’s election where voters will decide on amending the state constitution to add abortion rights to it.

Marc Clauson, Cedarville University history and law professor shared his prediction for the November election.

“I think that the abortion amendment will pass in this case, therefore, abortion will be written into the Constitution, at least to some extent, somewhat limited, but to a large extent, pretty expansive rights of abortion. I do think that will be passed,” Clauson said.

He also thinks the special election results could open the door for more amendments to be prosed in the future.

“It’s much more likely that we’ll see several people, not many, but a few pour in very large amounts of money to support the causes that these amendments want to support,” he said.

The failure of Issue 1 means that in November, the abortion rights amendment will need 50 percent plus one votes to pass.

We will continue following this story and add more statements as they are released.