ICYMI: Cleveland.com: Ohio Democrats Collect More Than 100,000 Signatures for Abortion-Rights Measure
June 21, 2023
Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Cleveland.com reported this week that Ohio Democrats submitted 100,637 signatures from Ohioans in all 88 counties to protect abortion rights and secure an abortion rights initiative on the ballot this November.
“I think what you’re seeing here is that Democrats, when they have the support they need, activists when they have the support they need, they show up,” said Chair Elizabeth Walters.
The signature gathering process is a grassroots, volunteer-driven effort with support from Ohio Democrats and County Parties. To secure the initiative on the ballot, Ohioans must submit more than 400,000 valid signatures to Ohio’s Secretary of State.
At the same time Ohio Democrats have been collecting signatures, they’ve also been organizing in communities across the state to urge Ohioans to vote NO on Issue 1 in August. The August election is a political power grab by corrupt politicians and special interests to prevent Ohioans from protecting abortion rights in November.
Read more from Cleveland.com HERE and below:
- Leaders of the Ohio Democratic Party say they have collected just more than 100,000 voter signatures ahead of a key state deadline to set a statewide election in November for a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
- The Ohio Democratic Party is among the groups that have collected and compiled signatures ahead of a preliminary Monday, June 19 deadline set internally by the campaign backing the abortion-rights amendment. Under state law, the campaign has until July 5 to collect and submit roughly 413,000 valid voter signatures, including a minimum number from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
- “We’re excited about what this means for the campaign, and what it means for mobilization efforts, and what we’ve been able to build and maintain,” Walters said.
- The proposed constitutional amendment, called the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, would grant every individual the right to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, including for contraception, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion. If it passes, the state would not be allowed to directly or indirectly burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with or discriminate against any person’s ability to exercise these rights.
- Walters said the Ohio Democratic Party’s 100,000-plus signatures include at least one from all of Ohio’s 88 counties. She said counties where the party is ahead of its goals include a variety of rural and/or heavily Republican areas: Athens, Defiance, Knox, Morgan, Hancock and Warren counties.
- Walters said the abortion-rights and anti-Issue 1 campaigns are giving Ohio Democrats a chance to fire up their base of supporters while building out a statewide political operation, including in more rural areas. This is part of the case the state party will make to national donors and party leaders, who are increasingly wary of Democrats’ chances in Ohio, heading into 2024, when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown will be seeking reelection.
- “We’ve been reinvesting heavily in our rural community to build our county parties up, build volunteer infrastructure and mobilize the grassroots over the last two and a half years,” Walters said. “And I think what you’re seeing here is that Democrats, when they have the support they need activists when they have the support they need, they show up.”
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