Poll: Ohio’s ‘Issue 1’ a Dead Heat

Ohio voters head to the polls this coming Tuesday, August 8, to vote on “Issue 1”—whether to raise the threshold to change the state constitution via ballot initiative from the current simple-majority requirement to 60 percent of votes cast. 

The imminent significance of the August vote is a deceptively framed ballot measure to be decided in November. In that upcoming election, the vote will determine whether Ohio will add a radical pro-abortion amendment to the state’s constitution.

Conventional wisdom holds that the August effort to raise the threshold is very unlikely to prevail: The opposition to Issue 1, spearheaded by the abortion lobby, has outraised supporters by a three-to-one margin, and a recent Suffolk poll showed that Ohioans oppose Issue 1 by a whopping two-to-one margin — 57 percent to 26 percent.