Ohio’s referendum is another win for abortion-rights campaigners
Editor’s note (August 9th 2023): This article has been updated.
OHIOANS ARE unused to voting in August. Previously, elections were held in the summer only in dire circumstances. Even then not many people turned up—primaries held in August last year, including for a Senate seat, got only single-figure turnout. But this year turnout was around 40%. Ohioans were voting in substantial numbers to answer one question.
On August 8th the Buckeye State decided in a special election against making its constitution harder to change: voters rejected a proposal to introduce a higher hurdle by about 57% to 43% President Joe Biden welcomed the defeat of “a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices.” In Ohio residents can collect signatures to force a popular vote on proposed amendments. This referendum, put forward by the state legislature, would if passed have required aspiring citizen-sponsored amendments to collect signatures from every county, rather than the current requirement to have them from just half the counties. For those that made it that far, the threshold for a proposal to pass would have been raised to 60% of the vote (from a simple majority).
2023-08-07 08:06:06
Post from www.economist.com
rnrn
Ohio’s referendum is another win for abortion-rights campaigners
Editor’s note (August 9th 2023): This article has been updated.
OHIOANS ARE unused to voting in August. Previously, elections were held in the summer only in dire circumstances. Even then not many people turned up—primaries held in August last year, including for a Senate seat, got only single-figure turnout. But this year turnout was around 40%. Ohioans were voting in substantial numbers to answer one question.
On August 8th the Buckeye State decided in a special election against making its constitution harder to change: voters rejected a proposal to introduce a higher hurdle by about 57% to 43% President Joe Biden welcomed the defeat of “a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices.” In Ohio residents can collect signatures to force a popular vote on proposed amendments. This referendum, put forward by the state legislature, would if passed have required aspiring citizen-sponsored amendments to collect signatures from every county, rather than the current requirement to have them from just half the counties. For those that made it that far, the threshold for a proposal to pass would have been raised to 60% of the vote (from a simple majority).
2023-08-07 08:06:06
Post from www.economist.com
rnrn