Following up from the hasty off-cycle attempt, Ohio has two issues that are being voted on today.
Issue 1 is Ohio’s attempt to pull a Kansas and protect abortion rights via constitution amendment. This is the issue that the August Issue 1 vote was trying to keep off the ballot (it failed).
Issue 2 is Ohio’s attempt to stop people from going to Michigan for legal weed.
(yes, the link is the same for both issues)
I don’t have high hopes for Issue 1, I feel that voters weren’t willing to screw up ballot referendums to keep it off the ballot back in August, but Ohio is still very much a red state at this point and I fear that all of the attempts to obfuscate this particular vote may have been successful.
Issue 2 feels like a lock but I haven’t been following any polling.
That’s kind of a weird way to couch what Issue 2 is: the legalization of marijuana. I went to your link thinking they were going to ramp up highway patrols near the MI-OH border or something, and create additional penalties for those caught with out-of-state bud.
Me too. I was searching through the bill to see where it said that out of state Marijuana was prohibited.
I guess that OP was trying to be funny by describing it this way and at the same time suggesting that much of the purpose was to keep the tax revenue from leaving the state, but for those of us who aren’t familiar with Ohio politics it was highly misleading.
I went into a little bit of detail on Ohio’s previous attempt at legalizing it in my previous thread, but the short version is that monied interests leveraged the constitutional ballot initiative process in 2009 to create a casino monopoly, which blindsided voters; monied interests tried the same thing in 2015 with legalized weed, which voters were wise to and shot down; all marijuana initiatives since then have died in our Republican legislature. But then 5 years ago Michigan legalized marijuana, and since then Ohioans have been crossing the border. Now even Republicans (voters, at least) are seeing dollar signs.
The ballot initiative would probably be there regardless, but without Michigan thumbing their tax dollars at us, I don’t think it would pass. As it stands, the polling looks promising.
I voted, this morning. I voted yes to both issues.
I fear for issue 1. It was polling well prior tothe August vote, especially after that ad that showed Dipshit Dave Yost proclaiming that the abortion initiative was exactly what August Issue 1 was all about.
Sadly, Ohioans have short memories.
If I can burn a bowl in public in 30 days, though, I’ll call today a win.
I’m feeling hopeful for Issue 1. My mom is Catholic and tends to believe a lot of it whole-heartedly, but I stood there and watched her fill out her mail-in ballot voting “YES” on 1. Her granddaughters were watching too.
She said “I don’t believe in abortion but I don’t believe the government should be telling people what to do with their bodies.”
ETA (and if I’m reading it right, I believe their initial estimate was Good Guys + 14, which would translate to a 57 / 43 breakdown, so I’m a little more optimistic than I was earlier)
Wow, I’m surprised. On the August initiative (the one to make the Ohio constitution unamendable, to block this one), I saw tons of “no” yard signs and almost no “yes” in my heavily-blue area, and while that one was voted down, it was a lot closer than it had any right to be. This time, however, even in my area, I saw a lot of “no” signs (maybe 2 to 1 “yes”, but again, heavily-blue area).
One very important point that most of the advertising glossed over: Issue 1, assuming it passes, will prohibit the government from mandating abortion. I give it ten years, tops, before heavily-red states start trying that, and their base will eat it up when they do.
The question is: will Republicans learn from these results and stop the fight against abortion? When voters get the chance, they vote for choice. I fail to see how they gain by continually fighting the tidal shift in public opinion.
And one would hope at some point that the voters would stop voting for state legislators who oppose abortion rights. Kansas overwhelmingly voted for abortion rights last year in the August primary, but again elected a GOP-heavy House in November.