Ohio’s Vote Shows Republicans Are Still Losing on Abortion

Facing a ballot measure in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, Ohio Republicans came up with what they thought was a clever scheme: They scheduled a ballot measure in August that would have made it harder for ballot measures to pass. The attempt blew up in their faces Tuesday, with the proposal rejected by some 57% of voters.

The question on the ballot, known as Issue 1, was whether to raise the threshold for approval for initiatives from a simple majority to a 60% supermajority, along with some other relatively technical changes. Democrats and abortion-rights groups opposed the measure, while Republicans and business groups supported it. And while it’s certainly possible that many Ohio voters were just uncomfortable with the concept of making direct democracy more difficult, there are a few more practical — and political — takeaways: