Poll taken on State Issues 1 and 2

VW independent staff/submitted information

BEREA — With early voting underway and less than three weeks to go until the November 7 election, a Baldwin Wallace University Ohio Pulse Poll shows strong support for ballot issues involving abortion rights in the state constitution and legalizing recreational marijuana.

However, the results come from a small sample of self-identified registered voters who are likely to vote in the upcoming election.

The BW CRI Ohio Pulse Poll shows 58 percent of likely voters for the November 7 election favor passage of Issue 1, an amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would protect the right to reproductive freedom, including “access to contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”

Issue 1 is favored by 89 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of independents. In addition, 65 percent of parents, 54 percent of gun owners and 37 percent of evangelicals support Issue 1. Only eight percent of respondents were undecided.

A similar majority of 57 percent said they plan to vote “yes” on Issue 2, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana. Just seven percent of respondents were undecided.

Majorities across most demographic groups support Issue 2, including 66 percent of Democrats, 50 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of independents, 70 percent of parents and 71 percent of respondents ages 18-49. Almost half of self-identified evangelicals (47 percent) and respondents age 50 and older (47 percent) support Issue 2.

“The majorities of respondents in these demographics favoring Issue 1 and Issue 2 indicate a strong likelihood of a majority vote for both ballot issues in November,” said Dr. Tom Sutton, political science professor and director of the BW CRI.

Interest in participating in the upcoming election is high. Some 67 percent of respondents said they were “certain to vote” on November 7, while 18 percent said they would “probably vote.” A sizable number of those are voting early, with 18 percent casting a ballot by mail and 26 percent voting early in person. A little more than half say they will vote on Election Day.

“Issue 1 and Issue 2 are personal for many Ohioans, which means that we can expect voter turnout will be much higher than usual for an off-year election only involving voting for local offices,” said Sutton.

The BW CRI Ohio Pulse Poll of 850 registered voters (750 identified as likely voters) was conducted between October 9-11. SurveyUSA administered the survey instrument online to a representative cross-section of self-identified registered voters in Ohio who were selected at random by Lucid Holdings LLC of New Orleans. Respondents were weighted to U.S. Census targets for gender, age, race, education, homeownership and by recalled 2020 vote. The margin of error for overall results was +3.5 percent for registered voter responses and +4 percent for likely voter responses.