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Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year. The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, rather than the 60% supermajority that was proposed. Its supporters said the higher bar would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups. (Smyth and Hendrickson, 8/8)

Late results showed the measure losing by 13 percentage points, 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent. The roughly 2.8 million votes cast dwarfed the 1.66 million ballots counted in the state’s 2022 primary elections, in which races for governor, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House were up for grabs. (Wines, 8/8)

Tuesday’s election proved that the state-by-state battle over abortion rights is still a serious motivator to get voters to the polls — even when abortion isn’t directly on the ballot. ... More than 600,000 people voted early — a number that could still rise from late-arriving mail ballots — which outpaced the entirety of the turnout for that 2022 August election. It was also more than twice the number of people who voted early in the May 2022 primaries, which featured competitive Senate or gubernatorial contests. (Fernandez, Ollstein and Montellaro, 8/8)

"Today, Ohio voters rejected an effort by Republican lawmakers and special interests to change the state’s constitutional amendment process," Biden said in a statement. "This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won," he added. (Edelman, 8/9)

Issue 1's defeat is good news for backers of the abortion rights measure, but it doesn’t assure an easy victory in November. Ohio is the only state voting on abortion rights this year, making it the epicenter of the fight over reproductive rights just over a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. ... Tens of millions will be spent on both sides of this political battle, including out-of-state money and secretive dark money. Supporters of the amendment estimate they will spend about $35 million on their campaign; opponents haven’t thrown out a number. Both groups were also active in the campaign for and against Issue 1. (Balmert and BeMiller, 8/9)