Ohio has seen a surge in early voting ahead of a crucial abortion vote on Tuesday, the only ballot initiative on reproductive rights in the nation this election year.
Buckeye State voters will head to the polls next week and decide whether to amend the state constitution to prevent the state from banning abortions in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
With Roe gone, Ohio was briefly able to enact a six-week abortion ban that lacked exceptions for rape and incest – a law that is currently tied up in court.
The state made national headlines just weeks after the Dobbs decision, when a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim was forced to go to Indiana to obtain an abortion because terminating her pregnancy would be criminal in the state.
The ballot initiative, simply called ‘Issue 1,’ would prevent the state from banning abortions, contraception, miscarriage care and other reproductive healthcare – to a point.
Voters in Ohio participate in the early voting period ahead of next Tuesday’s off-year election. The Ohio Secretary of State’s office said voting is up compared to the August special election in which the abortion amendment was also on the ballot
Anti-abortion activists march in downtown Columbus in early October. They already faced a setback in August when voters decided not to change the threshold for passage of a state constitutional amendment. Republicans wanted it moved from a simple majority to 60 percent
It would still allow for some late-term abortions to be banned – pregnancy terminations after the point of fetal viability, generally around 22 to 24 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger.
The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday that early, in-person voting is up in the state.
Melanie Amato, the communications director for Ohio’s Secretary of State’s office, told the paper that more than 200,000 Ohioans have shown up for early voting as of October 24.
Early voting started on October 11.
Additionally, Amato said the Secretary of State’s office received about 110,000 absentee ballots.
As it’s an off-year election, with no presidential or Congressional candidates on the ballot, Amato was comparing those totals with turnout from August.
In August, state Republicans had called a special election in an attempt to make the ceiling for approving constitutional amendments higher.
Supporters of Issue 1 rally around the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus in October. While already celebrating a victory in August that a simple majority would be needed to pass the amendment, the language on the ballot may confuse some Ohio voters
Instead of a simple majority approving an amendment, Republicans wanted it moved to 60 percent of the vote.
That effort failed – 57 percent to 43 percent.
At the same point in the run-up to election day, 192,000 in-person early votes had been cast and 93,000 absentee ballots had been submitted.
One quirky aspect about these two off-year elections is that in the August vote, abortion rights proponents needed to vote ‘no’ – as they rejected raising the threshold to pass a constitutional amendment to 60 percent.
But in the coming election, they’ll have to vote yes – to keep abortion legal in Ohio.
The language swap could confuse some voters.
Still, statewide protection of abortion has been successful on the ballot thus far – in both the swing state of Michigan and the more traditionally red Kansas.
But at the same time, Ohio has drifted to the right politically in recent years.
Former President Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020, after Democratic President Barack Obama captured it twice.
And the state elected a Republican, Sen. J.D. Vance, in last year’s midterm elections.