Campaigns for abortion rights, marijuana legalization meet signature quotas in area counties

Local boards sent their findings Thursday to the office of Secretary of State Frank LaRose for final verification. The campaigns, one attempting a citizen-initiated amendment and one attempting a citizen-initiated statute, are subject to meet different quotas in order to move forward in the process.

If the secretary of state finds that all quotas were met, Ohioans will get to vote on the abortion-rights amendment and the recreational marijuana initiated-statute in the Nov. 7th general election.

Abortion-rights amendment

The citizen-initiated amendment, formally titled “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety,” would protect the right for every Ohioan to make their own decisions on reproduction, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and abortion.

The proposal also provides that the state legislature can only ban abortions after a fetus is considered viable, or the point in which it could survive outside the mother’s womb, which is generally considered about 24 weeks, or late in the second trimester. The proposal’s full text and summary can be found at the secretary of state’s website.

The campaign was subject to collect a number of valid signatures equal to at least 10% of Ohio voters who cast their vote for governor in 2022 — at least 413,487 valid signatures statewide. Final verification is awaited.

It also needed to collect a number of valid signatures equal to at least 5% of voters who cast their vote for governor in 2022 in at least 44 of 88 counties in Ohio.

While final verification is still awaited on county quotas, the Dayton Daily News found the campaign met the 5% threshold in nine counties in the Miami Valley region, including Montgomery, Butler, Clark, Warren, Greene, Miami, Darke and Preble.

If all quotas are met, the measure will be on the November ballot. If Aug. 8’s Issue 1 passes, the abortion-rights amendment will be subject to a 60% vote threshold. If Issue 1 fails, a simple majority on Nov. 7 would pass the amendment.

Recreational marijuana initiated statute

The recreational marijuana citizen-initiated statute, formally titled “An Act to Control and Regulate Adult Use Cannabis,” would legalize recreational use by adults over the age of 21 and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana in the state. The full text can be found at the secretary of state website.

Citizen-Initiated statutes are subject to lower quotas than citizen-initiated amendments. The campaign was required to collect a number of valid signatures equal to at least 3% of Ohioans who voted for governor in 2022.

It also was required to collect a number of valid signatures equal to at least 1.5% of voters who voted for governor in 2022 in at least 44 counties. The Dayton Daily News found that the campaign did so in all nine counties in its coverage area.

This round of canvassing is the second phase of Ohio’s initiated statute process. The campaign’s first round of successful canvassing got LaRose to formally propose the the law to the legislature, who had four months to act on the bill. Ohio lawmakers didn’t move forward with the the measure, so a successful canvassing campaign would move the law to a statewide vote.

Final verification from LaRose is still necessary.