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It's official Ohioans will be voting this November to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

It's possible a law allowing marijuana use for Ohioans 21 and over might make the ballot too.

And issue one is driving Ohioans to the polls.

We'll talk to our reporter roundtable about that all this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of ohio.

I'm joe ingles sitting in for karen kasler, the ohio secretary of state's office.

Certified petition signatures from the coalition that wants to put a constitutional amendment on reproductive rights and abortion access before voters in November.

Earlier this month, a coalition of doctors, abortion rights advocates and union members submitted more than 710,000 signatures.

The coalition needed just shy of 414,000 valid signatures from 44 counties.

About 496,000 signatures from 55 Ohio counties were valid.

That's a validation rate of nearly 70%.

The next step for the amendment is the Republican dominated Ohio ballot board.

It will determine the language voters will see on the ballot.

A backer of the amendment says there's always shenanigans at the state house, but he says the ballot language should be simple.

We do understand the politics of Ohio, but the important thing about it is this language was written to be very clear.

This is a properly drafted constitu tional amendment that protects the reproductive rights of all Ohioans.

And we wrote that language, understanding that from the moment that this passes in November, it's going to be inspected by all kinds of lawyers and politicians who've been paying attention to this issue for decades.

And so we wrote it to be very solid, a proper constitutional amendment to base people's rights on.

The amendment will face opposition this fall from a variety of anti-abortion sources, including the Catholic Conference of Ohio.

We're going to continue to share our teachings that we've always taught that we respect as Catholics.

We respect life from the point of conception to the point of natural death, where we reach out to all those that are on the vote, are vulnerable.

That includes the refugees, the elderly and obviously the pre-born.

So we'll just continue to share our teachings of the faith and how this amendment goes against those teachings.

And we're called to respect them, respect life.

Tens of millions of dollars are expected to be spent on the campaign this fall, which would make it one of the most expensive in Ohio's history.

Another issue that could be on the ballot this fall, a proposed law to legalize marijuana use for Ohioans 21 years and older.

That committee to regulate marijuana like alcohol fell just 679 signatures short of being certified.

But the committee has ten days to circulate more petitions to gather more valid signatures.

Committee spokesman Tom Herron says getting those extra signatures is a very doable task because the issue is polling well with Ohioans.

If the group gets that needed number, that marijuana legalization issue will be on the ballot alongside the constitutional amendment on abortion rights.

Governor Mike DeWine opened the 2023 Ohio State Fair this week.

This year's Fair has all of the traditions of years past for H. Projects, food rides and the Ohio State Fair, marching band.

New this year, fairgoers can get a free shuttle and free admission to the nearby ohio history center after opening ceremonies, reporters asked DeWine about what he will do if issue one, the amendment to raise the threshold for a constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60% fails on the August 8th ballot.

DeWine has said he wants state lawmakers to clarify a six week abortion ban that's now on hold by courts.

But he's not saying if he'll try to convince lawmakers to come back to do that.

If issue one fails.

Look, I think that that the focus right now is on the August election.

And I think once that is over with and the focus will start to be on the November election, I'll have more to say at that point.

DeWine also wouldn't talk about the role he would take if the marijuana legalization measure makes it to the November ballot.

But in 2015, when Ohioans considered another ballot issue to legalize marijuana, DeWine, who was then Ohio attorney general, led the successful charge against it.

Ohioans are continuing to show interest in the August 8th special election.

It's a rare summertime statewide vote added to the election calendar in May, when Republican state lawmakers push forward the amendment to make it harder to change the Constitution.

Many early vote centers around the state say they've had lines of people streaming through to vote on issue one.

The only question on the ballot, the fight over issue one, is heating up on the airwaves with debates in different cities this week and New ads from both sides on the airwaves.

What was originally projected to be a low turnout election is turning out to be controversial.

I'm joined now by some statehouse reporters to talk about issue one, the abortion amendment and a possible marijuana legalization ballot issue.

Jeremy Pelzer is a reporter covering politics for Cleveland.com.

And Natalie Fahmy is Ohio Statehouse bureau reporter for the Next Star Media Group.

Welcome to both of you.

Great to be here.

Okay, Well, let's get started here.

The abortion amendment was certified this week, and the next step for it is the Ohio ballot board, where the GOP dominated panel will determine what voters will see when they go into the voting booth to vote on the issue.

What do you expect will happen there?

I'll start.

Ladies first, Natalie, what do you think's going to happen?

I think the ballot board is a really it's just it's just kind of a process step.

So really all they have to do is make sure that it's a single issue amendment and that what voters are seeing is straightforward, not confusing, that sort of thing.

So it's not really like they can interject their opinions about it or shut it down because they disagree with the contents of it.

It's really just very much a process step.

Jeremy, you think we're going to see a fire over there?

I think they already crossed the big hurdle to get this on the ballot, which is to collect the more than 400,000 signatures, valid signatures that they needed.

That's no easy feat.

So I think it's exceedingly likely, as Natalie said, that this will end up being sort of a rubber stamp.

And we'll see this on the ballot in November.

Well, Governor DeWine, a staunch opponent of abortion rights, has said for a while now that he thinks the six week abortion ban that's currently on hold by the courts needs to be clarified.

And when asked earlier this week if he wants lawmakers to come back into session to do that, if issue one fails, he said he didn't want to talk about that right now, but he kind of hinted that it might be a possibility.

What are you folks hearing?

Jeremy, I'll start with you.

Well, he was talking with reporters at the Ohio State Fair on Wednesday, and he hinted very strongly that after the August 8th special election is over, he is going to follow through on what he is saying, which is he wants lawmakers to clarify and put in more detail what Ohio's abortion laws are.

Right now, Ohio has at least passed a heartbeat bill that bans abortion after about six weeks into a pregnancy.

However, that's going through the courts now about its constitutionality.

And Mike DeWine obviously is looking at things like the story of that ten year old who had to go to Indiana to get an abortion and he wants them to basically make sure that the that the abortion laws in the state are more crystal clear about what can or cannot be done.

Natalie, you agree?

Yeah, I've echo everything Jeremy just said there.

When Michigan passed its constitutional amendment, the campaign for it featured doctors who said women would be put at risk without the option of abortion.

And it featured business leaders who said the economy would suffer without the passage of the amendment.

The campaign against the amendment called it extreme and said it went further than Michigan residents wanted.

We've already been hearing those arguments on both sides here in Ohio as we go into the fall.

How do you think this campaign will play out, Natalie?

I think it's going to play out really similarly to what you were just talking about with Michigan.

And like you said, we're already hearing that so much of the issue one debates around what we're going to be seeing in November.

So I think it's going to be a lot of well, Ohioans don't really want abortion of the amendment would make it up to the point of fetal viability.

And beside, again, against that, they're calling those late term abortions and saying that that's not something that Ohioans actually want.

And then the side for it says we need to give this choice to women and doctors.

You know, there there could be extenuating circumstances, things like that.

So they say it's a safety issue and also an issue of choice.

Mm hmm.

Jeremy, anything?

I agree with everything Natalie says.

I might just add, though, that we've already seen opponents of this abortion rights amendment trot out another argument, which is about parental rights, because they argue that it doesn't it's not just about abortion.

It's also about things about parents having the right to know about, for example, transgender surgery that their child might have to go through.

Yeah.

And of course, you know, we've seen the other side say, yeah, well, parental rights wouldn't be affected because this is a constitutional right.

And constitutional rights don't necessarily, you know, affect kids because you look at the right to vote or another right given in the Constitution, there are some limits.

So there's, you know, both sides are kind of playing that, you know, a different way.

So even though we know the issue when opponents are bipartisan, we're seeing Republican leaders go all out for issue one.

Do you think that many voters, especially those who might not be in tune with what's happening daily here at the statehouse, might be more swayed by the politics the partizan plays rather than the merits of issue one itself?

I think a lot of people we see vote on their party lines.

I mean, there's some people who are kind of swing voters, split ballot voters, things like that.

But I think in a state like Ohio, you see a lot of people voting down their party lines on what their party wants.

But like you said, if you want a little bit more complicated because there's some bipartisan support on the know side of this.

So it'll be interesting to see really what the turnout, what the breakout turnout numbers are.

I think that.

I think the people who are voting yes on this and supporting that, they want to make it more partizan because and you can see it in their ads when they're talking about don't make Ohio, California, don't let liberal special interests take over the state.

I think if you're the no side, you want to make it less partizan and less about a Republican versus Democrat thing.

So you can have voters come out and vote on the merits of the proposal itself, rather than making it a Republican or Democrat issue, because Ohio is increasingly a Republican state.

And so if you do that, you risk losing a number of voters.

So speaking of Partizanship, do you think Republicans who have been at the front of this issue will pay a political price for it if it fails?

I'm thinking of Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who's now running for the U.S. Senate.

Do you think it will help or hurt him?

What do you think, Natalie?

You know, I think it will depend ultimately what ends up happening in November, because whether or not issue one fails, I think there's going to be some Republicans who are okay with it and some who aren't okay with it.

But I think November I think that's definitely a more partizan issue.

And I think if that fails, it's going to be well, because the secretary of state couldn't get issue one to pass.

And that's why this abortion amendment passed and is now enshrined in our Constitution.

And I think that will really strongly be used against him in campaigns.

I think the caveat that we don't know how this is going to end up.

There are polls that show one thing, but we don't know.

But with that, if issue one ends up failing, you're going to see a lot of finger pointing among Republicans, some of which will be used for people's gain.

For example, there is a potential speaker, House speaker battle brewing between the sitting speaker, Jason Stevens and now current Senate president Matt Huffman, who's term limited.

And if issue one goes down in flames, that you're already starting to see a little inkling of placing the blame, laying that at the feet of Jason Stevens as a reason to vote for Matt Hoffman.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Well, early voting, it's underway now.

We know that Democrats have, you know, pretty much always encouraged early voting Republicans.

Not so much this time around.

We're seeing a shift.

We're seeing Republicans, the Republican parties out there telling their folks to vote.

And I've even seen former President Donald Trump make a statement like that.

Do you think that that early vote message is resonating with voters this time around, Jeremy?

Well, keep in mind that this is going to be by measures of like a regular general election, going to be a pretty low turnout and might be higher than what we thought, which was going to be an 8 to 10% turnout.

But it's still going to be fairly low.

It's going to be, it looks like, maybe along the lines of last August legislative primary election, which is the second primary election of the year.

So with that said, yeah, Republicans have learned from their past elections where they kind of discouraged early voting.

And what do you know, fewer people turned out to vote.

And so now there's a more heavy push.

We don't know, of course, yet who of the people who've turned out to vote who are Republicans or Democrats.

But yeah, there's a much more heavy focus on that.

With that said, Republicans tend to vote on election Day, just traditionally more so than Democrats.

And so they're on Election Day.

It'll probably more Republicans coming out to vote than Democrats.

Now, you agree?

Definitely.

Most trends always show Democrats coming out to vote early and Republicans playing catch up on Election Day.

And, you know, when I talk to people on the vote yes and vote no side the vote yes, I definitely really drives home that point.

They're like, you know, in the last US Senate race, J.D.

Vance was behind when all the early vote numbers came in, and then he ended up beating Tim Ryan quite comfortably.

Mm hmm.

Well, if issue one does fail, do you think those who oppose abortion and the November election will change their message?

I'll start with you, Natalie.

I don't think so.

I think they have been putting out their message since before we knew was going to be on the ballot.

And I think that message is going to stay strong in the this is not what Ohioans want.

This will allow what they call late term abortions.

This will allow this will take away parental rights.

So I really think those are the points they're going to continue to drive home.

Yeah, I think Natalie is absolutely right.

We're just seeing sort of a preview now.

Round one, the the order of of the main course of what's going to be the November election.

So we know if issue one passes, it will make it harder for the abortion amendment to pass.

And we know that polling has traditionally been off in recent years.

So do you think that the abortion amendment could reach a 60% threshold?

And if it does, would that make it more difficult for the people who are now pushing for issue one on the basis of abortion to then come back with another constitutional change to undo the amendment?

Well, the conventional wisdom going into all of this is that the 60% threshold would make it very hard to pass an abortion rights amendment, because if you look at other states such as Kansas that have passed similar amendments, it was somewhere between the 52 and 59% voter passage rate.

So if you look at other states, it would not pass if the same thing happened here.

But as you said, yeah, Joe, there's some polling showing that it would be above 60%.

Now, it's early.

We have all depends on, you know, how many people actually turn out to vote.

You know, there's a lot going on that we don't know going into the November election.

But if that does end up happening, well, it might actually be a blessing in disguise for anti-abortion activists.

If issue one fails, because, as you said, that they can try to come back and if not fully repeal that amendment with another amendment, then to water down or take different pieces of it about, for example, when viability is or other things like transgender surgeries, things like that.

Mm hmm.

What about that, Natalie?

Yeah, definitely.

I think we've already heard people like Senate President Matt Hoffman allude to the fact if this abortion amendment passes in November, that they will be back to the ballot box again.

And he says, well, first he says that's why it's important for issue one to pass.

So we don't have this ping pong back and forth.

But he says if that's what it comes to, it's one it's what it comes to.

Yeah, Opponents of issue one say it gives the minority control over the majority in two ways.

First, by allowing 41% of voters to have control over the majority and secondly, in the petition process changes, it would mandate a certain number of signatures from each county, each of Ohio's 88 counties, and that, they say, would allow one or two counties to stall the process of a citizen led amendment for the entire state.

Do you see this minority majority argument resonating with voters?

Well, I think both sides are kind of playing to the majority minority argument.

And I think I think at the end of the day, they need to make clearer argument.

I think right now things are getting so cloudy and foggy with all the other issues surrounding it.

So I think I mean, I can't tell you what's resonating with voters, but I just think they need to make a more clear argument about what's at stake for issue one, because, you know, people might hear, oh, majority rule, minority rule, and they're just like, okay, sure.

But if they really lay out what's at stake on either side, I think that's the strongest argument.

Yeah, I think Natalie's right that this is kind of been foggy because there's a lot of different narratives going on.

This is seen as basically a proxy election for this abortion rights amendment in November.

But at the same time, it's it's it's not an abortion rights amendment.

Is it about changing the threshold to change the state constitution, which, you know, by itself isn't the easiest to explain?

Well, right now it's 50% plus one and they would raise it to 60.

And, you know, if you get you can kind of get lost in the numbers.

What you're saying about my minority rule, governing at least, is germane to the issue.

One argument.

But it's kind of easy, as Natalie was saying, to kind of get lost in those details.

And so that's why many other people are just saying, well, it's about abortion and if you like abortion rights, well, you should vote against this amendment.

Okay.

Well, let's talk about something else.

A possible marijuana legalization law that could be before voters this fall to make it legal for adults 21 and older to use cannabis.

It could eventually be certified for the ballot.

It was pretty close.

And getting certified this week.

And we have seen more states legalize marijuana since 2015.

The last time Ohioans voted on a marijuana legalization measure, Have attitudes changed toward legal pot?

And do you see an increased chance for passage of this plan, Natalie?

I think I think attitudes have probably definitely changed in the last ten years or so about marijuana and legalizing pot.

I just had a discussion with Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio, and she even said, you know, a few years ago I was against it.

I didn't want it.

But now we've kind of changed my tune to that.

I mean, it can bring in a lot of tax dollars to the state.

We can put that money to a lot of really great programs, schools, things like that.

So I think attitudes have definitely changed.

It just as a matter of how much have they changed and how many people have changed their mind on it.

Plus, in 2015, when you had that responsible Ohio amendment, a lot of people who in theory ideologically support marijuana legalization, did not vote for it because they did not like the exact plan they would have written in the Constitution.

Specific geographical areas, plots of land in the state that specific people owned that could grow marijuana.

And I think a lot of people didn't like that.

They thought it was going to lead to kind of cronyism and benefit a very select group of people.

Now, this amendment that's being proposed now isn't is different than that.

So I think you might get more people on board who did not vote for it in 2015.

Yeah.

And this is a law, so it's really not a constitutional amendment.

So if voters pass it, lawmakers could come right back and change it afterwards.

They could modify it somehow.

Do you think that that could water down the opposition to it this fall?

I mean, if people are, you know, thinking, oh, well, they can change it, that's not as important as this constitutional issue.

I think the people that are knowledgeable enough about Ohio State government know that would probably go in and vote anyway, because if you don't pass a law in the first place, then there's nothing to repeal if you're in favor of it.

What do you think?

Yeah, I also think if if they come out in a large number and they pass this, say, and I don't I'm not saying that it's going to pass by a 60% or 70% or however high, but it's a bigger number.

They pass it by.

I think that kind of tells lawmakers, oh, this is the will of the people and maybe we should listen to the will of the people because, you know, there's only so far they can go.

I mean, if it passes by a narrow majority, then maybe lawmakers would be more inclined to do that.

But you never know what the Ohio State House.

You never know at the Ohio State.

House.

Legal weed, abortion rights on the same ballot if that happens.

What do you think about that?

Would will that help or hurt the issues, how that plays out?

I think it will bring I think the turnout will be really big.

I think we can expect that in November, whether or not the marijuana issue was on the ballot.

But I can't say whether it'll hurt or help.

I mean, it will definitely bring out more voters if they're both on there.

So it just depends on.

I mean, it'll be big for an off year election.

It's if this was next year, it would be kind of oversize because you have a presidential race and a US Senate race on the ballot.

You're not going to have that in November.

But yeah, normally it's right.

At the same time, you're going to have a lot of attention, much more attention drawn to it.

And no offense to any other than the Columbus mayor's race, which it's one of the other top tier races this year.

But yeah, I think you're going to be more likely to have proponents of marijuana legalization come out there.

It's not it's not a huge anti marijuana organized side.

You have people like Mike DeWine who don't like it, but you don't have like an organized opposition to it.

You will have an organized opposition there already is to the abortion rights amendment.

So I think that will dominate the airwaves this fall.

Well, that's it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check us out at our Web site at State News dot org.

And you can find us online by searching state of Ohio show.

Please join us again next time on the state of Ohio as we close out this week's show, we leave you with sounds and scenes from this year's Ohio State Fair, which is happening now through August six.

And this is where we.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country, Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community more at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.