Voters will decide in November whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. This week, Secretary of State Frank LaRose certified that groups pushing for the proposed amendment to be on the ballot met the required number of signatures needed.
Petition gatherers needed just under 414,000 signatures gathered from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. They delivered 495,000 valid signatures collected in 55 of Ohio’s counties.
The issue now goes before the ballot board to determine the language voters will see on the November ballot. Ohio is the seventh state to put abortion rights protections before voters since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade last year.
The coalition seeking to legalize recreational marijuana still has work to do to make the November ballot. Petitions gathered for the ballot issue fell 679 signatures short.
With the abortion protection amendment now on the November ballot, the big question is how many votes will be needed for it to pass. And that question will be answered on August 8. That’s when voters will decide State Issue 1. It seeks to raise the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment to 60%. It also would make it much harder for citizens to collect the needed signatures to qualify for a ballot. If passed, all future constitutional amendments would require super majority of voter approval, but only citizen-led amendments would be held to the tougher signature gathering rules.
Guests:
-Glenn Forbes, Supervising Producer for Newscasts, Ideastream Public Media
-Taylor Wizner, Health Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
-Haley BeMiller, Political Reporter, USA Today Network Ohio Bureau
