Ohio groups working in concert to codify abortion protections in the state’s constitution overcame one of the final administrative hurdles Monday when the Ohio Ballot Board cleared them to start collecting signatures.
Eh, oh, way to go Ohio.
Quite a good piece of news to start off the week! Go, progressive people of Ohio!
Ohio. Where rust goes to party and democracy goes to rust.
I know that the caption comes from Getty, but that is NOT the Ohio Statehouse. The building in the front center of the picture is currently occupied by the Ohio Supreme Court.
I don’t think that there will be a challenge getting more than 413,000 signatures. The challenge will be getting the minimum number of signatures in each of 44 counties.
The requirements appear to be signatures from at least 44 counties that add up to 10% of the previous total votes in the most recent governor’s race, plus a minimum of 5% of the total in at least 44 counties. That should be doable.
Thank goodness for spreadsheets.
It is not how many signatures you can get - it is how many you can get disqualified.
Just ask AZ voters
Is there a minimum number or will any number count?
Thanks. You answered my question before I asked it, or at least before I scrolled down to it.
I thought the Ohio legislature passed some law recently requiring ballot measures to pass with 60 or 75% of the vote or something, basically to keep their draconian abortion laws from being challenged. If they can still get this measure on the ballot, they’re not unrealistic that they’ll have to have at least twice the required number of signatures. Anti-choice groups are going to challenge every single signature down to the angle of a looped L. They have to get this right.
This is the sort of thing that more states should replicate. There are few places in the country where the right to a safe abortion isn’t the majority view, including some of the reddest of red states. Not only is it likely to pass, but it may amp up the blue vote for Brown, hopefully carrying him to another term.
They keep proposing the 60% measure. I don’t think it has passed and been signed by Governor sleazy chipmonk yet.
Given the illegal shenanigans the gop pulled with the unconstitutional maps, I’m expecting some nastiness to disqualify signatures in one or more of the low population counties to keep it off the ballot.
Last time they fielded teams to get people to sign petitions that were actually against the issue so that people thought they had already signed. I remember arguing with one of their canvasser in the parking lot of a football game about it.
They are truly evil bastards.
Ohio has 88 counties.
They were going to pass a law making it harder to pass changes to the Ohio constitution, but they missed the deadline to get it on the May ballot, so they would have to wait until November. If we can get the #ProtectChoiceOhio issue on the ballot in November, the Republicans may want to wait, because the people voting pro-choice might vote down the anti-referenda issue.
Also, if you have a few bucks to toss our way, the site is https://protectchoiceohio.org.
As a former Columbus resident and Statehouse worker, it is frustrating to see a picture labelled “Ohio Statehouse” when the Statehouse literally isn’t in the picture.