Ohio voters decide on Issue 1: Polls closed, results coming in

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Ohio voters turned out Tuesday for the special election on Issue One.

Visits to polling places like East Tech High School in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood remained steady all day.

If voters pass Issue 1, changes to the Ohio constitution would require a 60% majority, instead of the current 50% plus one.

More than 600,000 Ohioans cast their vote before Tuesday, which is seemingly a record turnout for a special election.

According to state data, nearly 580,000 people voted early in Ohio through Friday.

On Saturday, 30,054 ballots were cast and another 25,664 on Sunday. That brought the total to 634,208 through Sunday.

As of 8:40 p.m. on Aug. 8, 64.38% of 907,380 Ohioans who voted chose “no,” according to unofficial results from the Ohio government.

Voter Cassandra Gordon said more people are realizing how much their vote matters.

“More people are starting to know the resources that we have. I think it was a low turnout because we didn’t understand what voting really meant and what these issues really meant inside of this community,” Gordon said.

“We didn’t know these things were really available to us, so now that we have the education and the resources more people are starting to wake up and more people are starting to come out.”

The polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Cleveland 19 News will have live updates with the results.

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