FILE-Protesters hold placards expressing their opinion at a pro-abortion rights rally in Dayton, Ohio in 2022. A high-stakes August special election with national political implications is upending local election offices across Ohio, as already stressed election workers are suddenly faced with a mountain of logistical challenges after Republican lawmakers backtracked on their own law.
Republicans' immediate goal is to make it harder for voters to pass an abortion rights amendment that is in the works for November. Despite the significance, August's Issue 1 could be decided by a fraction of Ohio voters. Turnout predictions diverge wildly. Chronically low turnouts were among the reasons Ohio nixed August elections in the first place. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose testified at the time that they were bad for taxpayers, election officials and the civic health of the state, largely because few people show up.
In addition, she said, contracts with polling places didn't include the August election date. That means postcards will have to go out telling voters of the relocations, then again in the fall reminding them to return to where they normally vote. "We had 25 locations that could not accommodate us, due to resurfacing floors, church camps, Bible studies, those types of things," he said.
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With abortion rights on the line, an August special election has Ohio election offices scramblingA high-stakes August special election with national political implications is upending local election offices across Ohio. Already stressed, they must lure poll workers away from vacations, relocate polling places booked with summer weddings or maintenance, and repeatedly retest ballot language after the state’s high court found errors in the original wording. The short timeline was imposed by Republican state lawmakers, who reversed their own law that had eliminated most August elections. The question on the ballot would raise the voter threshold for passing future constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%. It's intended to thwart an abortion rights amendment coming in November. Republicans in Ohio backtracked on their own law banning August special elections in a gambit to undermine a November ballot initiative to protect abortion rights. Now local election offices are in chaos trying to prepare.
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