Overview and Live Results: Ohio Constitutional Amendment Ballot Referendum

Ohio voters will be deciding Issue 1 on Tuesday. It is an amendment to the State Constitution.

If 'Yes' wins, the amendment is passed. If 'No' wins, the Constitution is unchanged.

Polls close at 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

In a nutshell, the amendment increases the barriers for Ohioans to directly affect changes to their State Constitution going forward. It does this in two ways:

• It tightens the signature requirements to get a proposed amendment on the ballot
• For those that do make the ballot, it increases the required 'Yes' vote from a simple majority to 60%

If passed, the amendment is effective immediately, although the signature requirement changes kick in for amendments proposed after January 1, 2024.

Normally, an early August election, with nothing else on the ballot, would draw little interest. The date was selected by the Republican-controlled Legislature for that very reason, to make the change easier to push through when few are paying attention.

This is because there is already an amendment certified for the November general election ballot that would enshrine reproductive freedom in the State Constitution. If Issue 1 passes, the November amendment would need to have 60% support to pass.

The link between the two issues has not gone unnoticed, and early voting was extremely heavy.