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Ohioans say yes to abortion and reproductive rights and legal marijuana.

We go through the second big election night of 2023 this week in the state of Ohio and welcome to the state of ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

The final election of 2023 is over and it was a big deal.

Unofficial turnout is 48.86%, with 3,903,274 ballots cast from Ohio's 7,988,132 registered voters.

There are more than 58,000 provisional ballots.

Most of those will be counted.

There are more than 34,000 outstanding absentee ballots, and most of those won't be counted.

So about 3.95 million ballots will be counted.

That likely will boost turnout to 49 and a half percent.

That is higher than the most recent comparable odd year elections, with statewide issues on the ballot in 2015.

Turn out to vote on three issues, including one on marijuana laws just over 43%.

There were also three issues in November 2011 and turnout was just over 47%.

Ohio voters soundly approved the two statewide issues on the November 7th ballot.

Issue one a constitutional amendment on abortion and reproductive rights.

And issue two, a law to legalize recreational marijuana.

We'll start with the issue that got national attention and involved millions of dollars in ad spending and had been the reason for the single issue on the August special election ballot.

With the passage of issue one, Ohio became the seventh state to vote to affirm abortion rights.

Since the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022.

It's also the fourth Republican run state where voters have upheld the right to abortion.

The amendment created by Issue one guarantees access to abortion until viability and also the right to contraceptives, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and continue one's own pregnancy.

The impact of passing issue one will be felt throughout the state and for generations and generations to come because Ohioans stood up from now on.

The people of Ohio will get the care that they deserve from their doctors and their health care providers, respecting their wishes, their bodies, their life, and their futures.

Doctors will now be able to provide abortion care, contraception care, miscarriage, managed in-vitro fertilization, all of that because now it's in our Constitution, we deserve the right to command our own bodies.

Ohioans can rest easy knowing that we will never again be denied timely medical care or be forced to leave our home for the care we need.

Never, never.

This has been such a long time coming.

This campaign came together last year because we lost access, because there was a dangerous abortion ban in Ohio.

Patients and families were being harmed and lives were put at risk.

There was no choice.

We had to win.

We had to end the bad.

Winning was our only option, and we did it together.

Nine Ohio counties passed issue one by over 60%.

It passed by a simple majority, but less than 60% in 16 counties.

That's important because in August, voters had rejected that Republican proposed amendment that would have required 60% voter approval to amend the Constitution less than half a mile away in the headquarters of the influential Center for Christian Virtue, which has offices across from the statehouse.

It was a much different scene and mood.

Our hearts are broken tonight because we lost an election, not because we lost an election, but because Ohio families, women and children will bear the brunt of the vote.

But rest assured, the pro-life movement is more united than ever.

We stand ready during this unthinkable time to advocate for women and the unborn, just as we have always done.

We persevered for 50 years to overturn Roe v Wade.

Ours is a movement that has always endured and always will.

Tomorrow, the work starts again.

Though many Republican state officeholders had campaigned against issue one, only Attorney General Dave Yost made an appearance at the Watch party before the election.

Governor Mike DeWine had been saying that if Issue one failed, conversations on abortion policy could continue.

And rape and incest exceptions could be added to the six week abortion ban.

But after the race was called, House Speaker Jason Stevens struck a different tone, saying in a statement, quote, I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is unwavering.

The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life.

This is not the end of the conversation.

And quote.

And Republican Senate President Matt Huffman, who is running for the House next year and is likely to challenge Stevens to become speaker if they both win, said in a statement, quote, This isn't the end.

It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace issue one, end quote.

He hinted at that in August.

If it passes in November.

There's going to be another abortion amendment.

Go on after that to repeal that.

Also on Tuesday, Ohioans voted to legalize recreational marijuana, becoming the 24th state to do so when the law takes effect in 30 days, Ohioans over 21 can have six pot plants per person and a dozen per residents.

And the law will impose a 10% excise tax on marijuana sales.

Along with state and local taxes.

Two thirds of the revenue will be split evenly between a social equity and jobs program fund and communities that have dispensaries.

A quarter will go to addiction treatment and 3% to administrative costs.

Not long after the race was called, Senate President Matt Huffman issued a statement through his spokesperson, John Fortney.

What really the statute was written by the marijuana industry, and it should not be treated as just a cash grab for the cartels at the expense of a state that's trying to emerge from the opioid epidemic right now.

So the General Assembly may consider amending that statute to clarify some questionable language regarding limits for THC.

It's written really as a floor, not as a cap.

Under paragraph 21, it talks about not less than 35%.

If it was a cap, that would be not more than 35%.

Also, tax rates are an issue and we'll see where the general simply lands because this is an initiated statute which would turn into Ohio revised code.

And the General Assembly may of course amend, revise code.

Tom Herron heads the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol, which put issue two before voters after first taking it to the legislature in January.

When lawmakers didn't act, the group gathered signatures to put it on the November ballot.

Look, in 2023, I can't believe that we're actually talking about elected officials not respecting the outcome of an election.

I expect I think every voter has a right to expect that our policymakers respect the will of the voters and the voice of voters who again tonight spoke decisively when they passed issue two in a landslide.

Do you have to have a conversation, though, with President Huffman and Speaker Stevens about what changes they might make?

Or is that really up to them?

I mean, quite frankly, the conversation is the people have spoken and they spoken decisively.

So it's now up to the state to implement issue two over the coming months.

There wasn't an obvious campaign against issue two, but there was plenty of opposition.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Manufacturers Association have been among issue two most outspoken opponents, joined by the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association, and the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.

Children's hospitals were also opposed.

The business groups in particular want to see some changes to the law.

When you look at the tens of thousands of new jobs coming to Ohio in the next few years, I mean, by and large they're in manufacturing.

And these are jobs that require precision, that involves dangerous equipment, heavy machinery.

Not to mention all the construction that's going to have to go into building all the new facilities.

And, you know, by making cannabis more readily accessible, we're increasing the likelihood of workplace accidents and injuries.

And so, again, you know, we're going to need to educate employers on, you know, their rights, you know, help them craft workplace drug policies and testing protocols and educate the legislature.

I mean, the people have spoken.

Recreational marijuana is is legalized.

But we want to make sure that it's done in the most responsible and and safe manner.

The backers of the recreational marijuana law had long said something needed to be in place when or if the federal government legalized or reclassified marijuana.

The expectation is that the Drug Enforcement Agency will make it a Schedule three controlled substance, which could have implications for the state and judicial system, as well as employers and insurance carriers.

The revenue raised by legal marijuana sales has been estimated by issue to backers at $280 million to over $400 million a year.

Issue one one in 25 of Ohio's 88 counties 63 counties, rejected it.

It won in all seven counties won by President Biden in 2020 and in 18 counties won by former President Trump.

Issue two passed in 40 counties and failed in 48.

The seven counties Biden won were among the 40 counties where it passed.

And that means while the total results were similar, the maps look very different.

CNN did exit polls and they contained some interesting information.

The gender gap was fairly small but noticeable on issue one with seven points separating women from men.

It was even less significant on issue two, with only three points separating men and women, the largest voting bloc in terms of age was 45 to 64 year olds.

And once again, predictions of a flood of young voters flocking to the polls fell flat.

Both issues won in all age groups except people over 65, with the percentage of approval decreasing as age increased.

Younger voters clearly embraced issue one, with nearly eight in ten voters between 18 and 24 voting yes and nearly 70% of voters 30 to 44 on the yes side.

That was also what exit polls showed on issue two, with younger voters enthusiastic, supporting it and support going down as age went up.

Only four in ten voters over 65 supported legal, recreational marijuana, white men and white women made up the majority of the electorate, and the white women's vote mirrored the final results for issue one.

More than 80% of black women and nearly 90% of black men voted yes on issue one.

White men and women also favored issue two, with the percentage of black men voting no, doubling and a significant increase in the no vote over the issue.

One vote for black women.

The results for issue one were expected when broken down by party ID and ideology.

Exit polls show more than 80% of Republicans and conservatives voted no, and more than 90% of Democrats and liberals voted yes.

It was the independent or moderate voters who decided issue one.

More than two thirds of voters in that group voted yes.

And another interesting data point from CNN's exit polls.

24% of people who identify as white born again evangelical Christians voted yes on issue one, and 30% of that group voted yes on issue, too.

The Washington Post also did exit polls with similar results.

My statehouse news bureau colleagues, Joe Ingles and Sara Donaldson were in the field all night covering issue one.

While I monitor issue two, but we've all three been covering both issues for months.

So, Joe, you have been following abortion policy in Ohio for years.

You were with the supporters of issue one on election night.

They haven't been on the winning side in a very long time.

So what was the mood like that you saw?

It was a party.

They were excited.

They were happy.

They were confident going in and they felt like the Ohio voters had really spoken.

And it was the first time that they felt that the Ohio voters have had a chance to speak on this issue in a very long time.

Was there any talk of 2024 and how this affects next year's election?

No, I think they were just too excited.

You know, and that night they were too excited to just have their side win.

And Sarah, you were with the anti issue one side.

Opponents of abortion rights have seen a lot of success in the last decade or so, both of legislation and with candidates who share their views.

So what was the mood like there?

As expected, it was quite the opposite.

Another reporter described it as subdued before the race was even called.

A lot of anti a very few anti-abortion politicians showed at the event.

Attorney General Dave Yost was there for a period of time, left about an hour before the race was called, but it was quiet.

There was music going on.

The race was called at about 9 p.m. by the Associated Press, by Fox News a few minutes later, which was showing on the televisions.

And I would say once the race was called, it wasn't angry, it wasn't vengeful.

President of the Center for Christian Virtue, Aaron Beyer, he gave a concession speech about 9:45 p.m., I'd say.

And, you know, he said they're heartbroken.

That's how they're feeling right now.

He did also say, you know, tomorrow the work begins.

But it's not entirely clear what that work looks like going forward.

Joe, some Democrats who were among the most vocal supporters as you want, are wasting no time with this.

They proposed a package of legislation that would get rid of most abortion related laws.

Can you run down some of those highlights?

Yeah, sure.

Democrats, the sponsors on this are two different doctors who also serve in the Ohio House, Dr. Anita Somani and Dr. Beth Liston.

They are coming out with a plan that includes some things like getting rid of the 24 hour waiting period and getting rid of trap laws.

Now trap laws TRAP stands for targeted regulation of abortion providers.

And they say, like an example of this kind of law would be transfer agreements.

Right now in Ohio, ambulatory facilities that provide abortions have to have a transfer agreement with a hospital in order to get their license.

State facilities that are you know, state facilities cannot be part of those transfer agreements.

Catholic hospitals, they find it very hard to get them on board because of their theologies.

So therefore, it has made it very difficult for some of these abortion clinics to operate.

And so there you know, the contention is these are these transfer agreements are not applied to other ambulatory services, like maybe an EMT or maybe an orthopedic kind of ambulatory facility.

So they want to get rid of those.

There's also something on the books, a telemedicine thing that that's kind of held up in court right now.

It's got some questions about it.

But basically it would prevent doctors who perform abortions from prescribing abortion medication.

But, you know, if a doctor, if you can go online and get a doctor to prescribe you antibiotics for a sinus infection, are you treating that doctor treating a doctor differently if they prescribe you an abortion medication?

So that's one of the things.

Also, they want to protect doctors privacy and they want to protect the privacy of patients.

And they want to do that through data.

You remember, I think it was last year that attorney General Dave Yost had said that, you know, he wanted to get information about women who had gone into other states to get an abortion, who had gone where they went, that kind of thing.

Well, this would push back on that and say, now you can't do that because there HIPA violations here.

And so you've got to treat that like you would any other medical service.

And it would also prevent doctors and they say from being, you know, persecuted under you know, either with their license or with a civil or criminal kind of penalty.

You know, Karen, the thing it doesn't do is it doesn't speak to that parental consent law that we heard so much about in ads.

They say that, you know, parental consent is basically required for many medical procedures and not just abortion.

And so there is nothing in this legislation, at least from the Democrats, that deals with repealing or in any way changing the the parental consent laws in Ohio.

Now, Michigan passed a similar amendment last year, and Democrats in majority Democrats in Michigan proposed legislation that's similar to this.

It's interesting when you look at the results of the Ohio vote that Ohio and Michigan voted almost the same on issue one, even though Ohio is significantly more Republican in terms of state officeholders and all of that than Michigan.

So let me and also Michigan's governor was supportive of their amendment are Governor Mike DeWine was opposed to it.

But let me ask you, this package, is this expected to pass or is it the kind of thing where the expectation is that lawsuits are going to have to happen for some of these laws to be overturned?

Well, I think the latter is almost inevitable.

I mean, if you ask me, the the law odds on having lawsuits on some of this stuff, I would say, yeah, it's pretty much probably 100%.

But, you know, I think that these are Democrats that are proposing this.

Democrats are highly outnumbered in the legislature.

Governor DeWine, if you were to pass laws to change things, he is an outspoken opponent of issue one.

He doesn't like abortion.

So that's an uphill challenge for him.

This will be a challenge for them to get this passed.

But if you read the language of the amendment and you look at some of the things they're proposing, there could be some real legal challenges ahead that might have some legs.

And let me turn now to Sarah here.

Speaking of Governor Mike DeWine, you spoke to him earlier this week, his first appearance since election night.

He was opposed to both issue one and issue two.

And, of course, issue one right after the vote, legislative leaders said that they want to make some changes.

Senate President Matt Huffman had even said another ballot issue is potentially in the works.

So what did Governor DeWine say?

Sure.

So Governor DeWine, you know, really started off with reporters before they even kind of got questions and that he wanted to respect the will of the people on both issue one and issue two.

He made it very clear that does not mean there aren't going to be changes to issue two, which is, of course, the recreational marijuana initiated statute.

But he really kept going back to how he wants to respect the will of the people.

And he didn't directly say it, but it's pretty clear that he's not seeing the same he's not seeing eye to eye with Senate President Matt Huffman or with Speaker Jason Stevens, who minutes after the election was called, an hour after the election was called.

We're kind of talking about exploring every option that they can to overrule this.

It didn't seem like he was in that camp.

But on issue two, he did have some things that he wants to see happen and in short order.

Yes.

He said that his goal for the legislature is for them to pass a package of changes on issue two by nightfall on December 6th, I think is how he described it.

The effective date is December seven.

So that's when right now it becomes legal for Ohioans to start consuming marijuana.

There's obviously some provisions that change when it's actually able to be sold and how the licensure process will work.

But he's talking about changes, as are the legislature, to what Ohioans passed on issue to nothing set in stone.

He was pretty vague about what those changes actually look like.

We've heard a lot of different things from lawmakers, you know, potential changes to how tax revenue goes, where it kind of goes, potential changes to THC content and the potency of the products, potential changes to advertising regulations, packaging regulations.

I mean, I've kind of heard all of that, but certainly DeWine wants those changes to come before the initiated statute actually takes effect, because he says he doesn't want lawmakers to take away things after it's already in effect.

And finally, we knew ISSUE one was coming in February and is sure to kind of flew under the radar, had been proposed to the legislature in January.

Legislature didn't do anything.

Then the governor's signatures and put it on the ballot.

So I wanted to ask both of you, have you talked to anybody about the effect that having both of those issues on this ballot had on turnout and on results?

I mean, this is an odd year.

Elections.

The turnout wasn't expected to be huge.

It was just under 49%.

Have you talked to anybody about the effect of issue two on issue one?

Yeah, we saw a lot of Democrats who were supporting both measures and we saw a lot of push for both measures.

And then sometimes you would go to an event for one or the other.

There weren't too many issue to events, to be quite honest.

But you go to an amendment event, you know, people who want to pass the amendment and they would also be pushing issue two.

So I think there was some overlap there.

How much overlap?

I don't know.

And then you had a lot of you know, kind of split voters to who maybe voted for issue one but didn't vote for issue two for some reason.

And then, you know, there might be people I think our numbers kind of show that there are people out there who maybe voted on one and not the other.

And the maps look very different when you start looking at the results were very similar, but the maps look very different.

Yeah, I think that Jo's last point is really interesting because there were, I don't know the exact number, but there were fewer Ohioans who actually chose to vote on issue two and decide on marijuana.

So definitely some people who maybe showed just for abortion and maybe issue two was an afterthought to them.

I don't know how I want to vote or I'm not going to vote on it.

And certainly the map looks really interesting.

You're seeing some southeast Ohio rural counties who were all for issue two and didn't take us kindly to issue one.

So definitely a lot of interesting splits with that.

Both issues one and two, have huge implications for the state, but especially issue one since it's a constitutional amendment.

I talked with a leading expert on Ohio's Constitution, law professor Stephen Stein.

Glass.

I asked him about the historical significance of the passage of Issue one.

I think 2023 was the most consequential year in the history of the Ohio Constitution since the adoption of direct democracy in 1912.

If you look at what's happened in the last few months, influence on the summer, August 8th, the voters rejected what was a fairly obvious ploy to make it harder to amend the Constitution.

I mean, I understand that what happened in August was was motive aided by a desire to thwart the reproductive rights amendment.

But as I and many others pointed out, it would have limited not just the use of the initiative, but it would have limited the ability of the General Assembly to adopt constitutional amendments.

And the proposal ignored the fact that the Ohio Constitution is really part of the process of governance and the General Assembly in a very, very shortsighted way, ignored the implications of the 60% proposal on its ability to govern.

It's only been used prior successfully, prior to yesterday, 19 times.

71 times.

It's been attempted 52 times of the voters rejected the proposed amendment.

19 times they approved it.

Yesterday was the 20th time.

So if you put those three items together within really a three month period, three major decisions of events in Ohio, constitutional history took place.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio.

And Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at state news dot org or find us online by searching the state of Ohio show.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

We leave you this week with images from the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday and wish all who served a Happy Veterans Day.

Support for the statehouse news bureau comes from medical mutual dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans offering health insurance plans as well as dental vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med Mutual AECOM the law offices of Porter, Right.

Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Right.

Is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter recom Porter Right inspired every day in Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.