Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont resoundingly approved amendments to their state constitutions last year that now guarantee the right to an abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Many more states can—and should—follow suit.
Two states, New York and Maryland, in fact, have already placed similar amendments on the ballot, but another 21 could do the same thing, as illustrated in the map at the top of this post and in this companion spreadsheet. Together, these 26 states would cover 58% of the nation’s population—a critical step in the battle to restore abortion rights for the entire nation. - Daily Kos
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Many states can amend to protect reproductive rights
Minnesota is one of them. Obviously you have to click for the referenced map and spreadsheet.
Looking at Ohio, which has an active campaign to guarantee abortion rights on the ballot, would require 5% of register voters in a majority of counties and 10% overall ... I believe that Mike DeWine won 85 out of 88 counties in 2022 (winning most counties with 70% and more of the vote) and Biden only won 7 in 2020 .... and counties are not created equal .... it may be possible to get 5% in Cleveland where you would need 20,000 out of roughly 400,000 but there are smaller counties like Harrison where less that 5,100 people voted so they would have to target true activists .... add to that the recent change in what is acceptable forms of ID to vote in Ohio, I could see legal challenges if they did get enough signatures.
ReplyDeleteLastly, remember in 2004, a lot of people thought that Kerry could win Ohio ... but Bush was aided by a State Constitution Amendment defining marriage as One Man, One Woman ... it brought an increase in voters and passed with over 60% of the vote while Bush won with 51%.
I gotta wonder if having it on the ballot would hurt Sherrod Brown more than help him.
BTW ... the latest Republican to announce a challenge to Brown is current Ohio Congressman Max Miller's father-in-law ... Bernie Moreno's net worth is in the $100 million range ... the other GOP candidate is Matt Dolan whose father owns the Cleveland baseball team. Fun Fact - neither GOP announced candidates were born in America.