This means an amendment that could enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution in November will need to pass by a simple majority, not 60%.
Several news organizations called the contest less than an hour after the polls closed. The AP called the race just before 9 pm.
The turnout for this election was higher than anticipated. All but one of ten Ohio counties with live election day trackers showed turnout above 30%, and three had turnout over 40%.
Some Republicans officeholders had said they expected the attention on Issue 1 would drive up turnout. But the weekend before early voting began, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a primary backer of Issue 1, said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if turnout was similar to last year’s legislative primary. The turnout in that August 2022 vote was 7.9% statewide.
Early voting boosted turnout numbers. Nearly 700,000 Ohioans cast early ballots, which is twice as many as voted early in the contested primaries for U.S. Senate and governor in May 2022. And it was five times higher than the total turnout last August. There’s been no comment from LaRose on turnout.
“At a couple of locations, it took them a few minutes to get the scanners up and running because these are brand new scanners so all of the procedures are new for our poll workers,” West said.
West said the scanner problems didn’t cause any delays and all of the scanners were working properly. Summit County had similar scanner problems, but those were handled early in the day.
This August special election was set in May by supermajority Republican state lawmakers concerned about the coming amendment on abortion rights, though some said later it was about other issues as well.
Some of those lawmakers just months ago approved a law eliminating most August special elections because of low turnout and high costs. But when lawmakers couldn’t pass a resolution in time to put the constitutional change on the May primary ballot, they turned their eyes to August.
Following a lawsuit by opponents, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court ruled the election could proceed because the new law didn’t apply to lawmakers putting a constitutional amendment before voters.