Ohio to vote on Republican-backed attempt to undermine abortion access effort – live

Joe Biden is spending today in Arizona, where at 2pm eastern time he will announce that he is designating about one million acres around the Grand Canyon as a national monument, which will also protect it from uranium mining.

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The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh and Mary Yang have more:

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Joe Biden will designate a “nearly 1m acres” expanse around the Grand Canyon as a new national monument, protecting the region from future uranium mining.

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The designation, which Biden is expected to announce on Tuesday comes after years-long lobbying by tribal leaders and local environmentalists to block mining projects that they say would damage the Colorado River watershed and important cultural sites.

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The new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon national monument encompasses the headwaters of the Colorado River, as well as the habitat of the endangered California condor. It is also the homeland of several tribes. Baaj Nwaavjo means “where tribes roam” for the Havasupai tribe and I’tah Kukveni means “our footprints” for the Hopi tribe.

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“Establishing the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument honors our solemn promise to Tribal Nations to respect sovereignty, preserves America’s iconic landscapes for future generations, and advances my commitment to protect and conserve at least 30% of our nation’s land and waters by 2030,” Biden said in a statement.

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In 2012, the Obama administration had blocked new mining on federal land in the area – but the protections are due to expire by 2023. The new designation would protect the area in perpetuity. Mining industry officials have said they will attempt to challenge the decision.

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Congress has been exploring new laws to boost national uranium production and enrichment, in an effort to reduce the US’s dependence on Russian imports.

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The US Supreme Court has just granted a request by Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate – at least for now – a federal regulation aimed at reining in privately made firearms called “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace, Reuters reports.

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The news agency further writes:

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The justices put on hold a July 5 decision by US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas that had blocked the 2022 rule nationwide pending the administration’s appeal.

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O’Connor found that the administration exceeded its authority under a 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act in implementing the rule relating to ghost guns, firearms that are privately assembled and lack the usual serial numbers required by the federal government.

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The rule, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2022 to target the rapid proliferation of the homemade weapons, bans “buy build shoot” kits without serial numbers that individuals can get online or at a store without a background check. The kits can be quickly assembled into a working firearm.

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The rule clarified that ghost guns qualify as “firearms” under the federal Gun Control Act, expanding the definition of a firearm to include parts and kits that may be readily turned into a gun. It required serial numbers and that manufacturers and sellers be licensed. Sellers under the rule also must run background checks on purchasers prior to a sale.

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Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency matters arising from a group of states including Texas, on July 28 temporarily blocked O’Connor’s decision to give the justices time to decide how to proceed.

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The administration on July 27 asked the justices to halt O’Connor’s ruling that invalidated a Justice Department restriction on the sale of ghost gun kits while it appeals to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The administration said that allowing the O’Connor’s ruling to stand would enable an “irreversible flow of large numbers of untraceable ghost guns into our nation’s communities.”

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Supreme Court backs Biden curbs on “ghost guns””,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Joanna Walters”,”imageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/12/13/Joanna_Walters.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=9753f493de414f16f919e3a73fb7a3fc”,”largeImageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/12/13/Joanna_Walters_Next_Gen.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ce789e61f5c53125de905d4e32561cae”}],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 8 Aug 2023 18.50 BST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 8 Aug 2023 14.00 BST”},{“id”:”64d263668f088246c33075d6″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Democrats and Republicans are closely watching a special election in Ohio that could indicate if voters, even in red states, are willing to protect abortion access. Buckeye state residents are considering Issue 1, a GOP-backed measure that would make it more difficult to change the state constitution, which reproductives rights advocates are asking voters to do in November to ensure abortion remains legal. Today’s election is viewed as a test of whether the issue, which so animated voters in last year’s midterm elections and was seen as one reason why Democrats nationwide performed better than expected, remains as potent as it once was. Polls close in Ohio at 7.30pm eastern time.

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Here’s what else is going on today:

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• If Issue 1 is approved in Ohio, election-day turnout will likely be crucial, a top political analyst says.

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• Ron DeSantis is replacing his campaign manager in an effort to jump-start his floundering presidential bid.

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• The Washington DC grand jury that last week indicted Donald Trump is continuing its work, for reasons that remain unknown.

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CNN reports that the grand jury which last week indicted Donald Trump on charges related to his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election has returned to work in Washington DC:

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The grand jury that handed up an indictment against Trump last week is meeting again today at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC.

This indicates the investigation into election interference is ongoing.

— Casey Gannon (@caseyagannon) August 8, 2023

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It’s unclear what evidence prosecutors may be presenting to the jurors.

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s once-promising campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is not looking so hot, and today, The Messenger reports he will replace a top staffer with a veteran from his administration.

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From The Messenger’s exclusive:

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In his third staff shakeup in less than a month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced his embattled presidential campaign manager with one of his most trusted, and most conservative, advisers: his gubernatorial office’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier.

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Outgoing campaign manager Generra Peck will remain as chief strategist on the campaign as part of the restructuring. Peck guided DeSantis’s blowout reelection bid last year, but she quickly became the subject of criticism from DeSantis advisers and donors in mid-July after his presidential campaign stalled and money dried up.

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The campaign then twice cut staff and expenses and retooled DeSantis’s press strategy to make him more available to the mainstream media.

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But donors and some outside advisers weren’t satisfied, leading DeSantis last week to ask Uthmeier to diagnose problems with the campaign and see if he could fix them. Ultimately, it led the governor to ask Uthmeier to take the job.

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Uthmeier shies away from calling the reshuffling a “reboot.” It’s a despised word in the campaign, where advisers prefer to call this the last campaign “reload” — and say they’re going to win, despite the naysayers and early polling.

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“People have written Governor DeSantis’s obituary many times,” Uthmeier said in a written statement to The Messenger. “From his race against establishment primary candidate Adam Putnam, to his victory over legacy media-favored candidate Andrew Gillum [in 2018], to his twenty point win over Charlie Crist [in 2022], Governor DeSantis has proven that he knows how to win. He’s breaking records on fundraising and has a supporting super PAC with $100 million in the bank and an incredible ground game. Get ready.”

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If voters today approve Issue 1, the Republican-backed measure that would make it harder to change Ohio’s state constitution via the popular vote, the impacts will extend beyond abortion rights.

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While Issue 1’s passage would make it much more difficult for a constitutional amendment protecting access to the procedure to qualify for the November ballot, it would also help the state’s Republican lawmakers protect their political power. How? The Guardian’s Sam Levine explains:

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Currently, Ohio requires activists to get a certain number of signatures on petitions, both statewide and in 44 of 88 counties, to send an amendment to the ballot. In each of the 44 counties, the total number of signatures needs to be equivalent to 5% of the vote in that county in the last gubernatorial race. Statewide, the total has to be equivalent to 10% of the same.

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Issue 1, the only question on Tuesday’s ballot, would make that process considerably harder. It would require supporters to get the signatures in all 88 counties and then obtain a 60% supermajority for an amendment to pass.

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The vote comes just three months before Ohio is to rule on a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights in November. Republicans have openly said that Issue 1 is an attempt to block the abortion measure from passing.

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The vote is also an effort to preserve Republican political power in Ohio. Activists in the state are crafting a constitutional amendment that would strip state lawmakers of their ability to draw electoral districts and hand it over to an independent commission instead. Last year, Republicans repeatedly ignored rebukes from the supreme court calling for the redrawing of district lines because they were too distorted in favor of Republicans. Republicans eventually ran out the clock, preserved their supermajority in the state legislature, and then used that supermajority to refer Issue 1 to the ballot.

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Polling has been limited and it is difficult to predict the results of a ballot referendum. The average of three polls, all of which have slightly different wording, have shown 35% of Ohioans support the change, 45% oppose it, and 20% aren’t sure, according to FiveThirtyEight. Similar measures to raise the threshold for constitutional amendments in other states have failed in recent years, the outlet noted.

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If the measure passes, opponents say, it would effectively institute minority rule in Ohio. Supporters say it should be harder for citizens to amend the state constitution. That argument is not supported by data – roughly 75% of the citizen-initiated constitutional amendments over the last century have failed. Ohio also allows the legislature to send constitutional amendments to the ballot and voters have approved 106 out of 157 since 1914, according to cleveland.com.

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Good morning, US politics blog readers. The state of Ohio is holding an unusual special election in the middle of the summer today, where voters are being asked what seems like a fairly innocuous question: should the bar for changing the state constitution via a ballot initiative be raised to 60% support, from its current simple majority? But the measure, which would also increase the number of signatures required for campaigners to get an initiative on the ballot, is, in fact, a Republican-backed attempt to undermine a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access that is expected to go to voters in November. If the measure up for consideration today, known as Issue 1, succeeds, it could make it much more difficult for the abortion amendment to qualify for the ballot.

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Republicans dominate the state government in right-leaning Ohio, and even before Roe v Wade was overturned, passed a law restricting the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, though its implementation is currently blocked by a judge’s ruling. But even in red states, reproductive rights advocates and their Democratic allies have seen success in protecting abortion at the ballot box, and they’re hoping to repeat that today.

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Here’s what else is going on:

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• Mike Pence said he has qualified to appear on the stage when the first Republican presidential debate is hosted on 23 August.

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• Joe Biden is in Arizona, where he will designate a new national monument near the Grand Canyon intended to protect the national park from mining.

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• Legal wrangling continues in Donald Trump’s case over the attempts to overturn the 2020 election, with the judge yesterday ordering a hearing to consider prosecutors’ request for limits on what information the former president can share publicly.

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Key events

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The supreme court’s grant of a Biden administration request to reinstate its regulations on ghost guns while a legal challenge continues came about after a split among the six-member conservative majority.

Conservatives Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, while Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts joined with the court’s three liberals in allowing the regulations to remains in place, at least for now, Bloomberg News reports.

Expect further litigating over the rules, which Bloomberg reports were put in place by the Biden administration to stop gun violence, only to be challenged in court:

The ATF rule subjects gun kits to the same federal requirements as fully assembled firearms, meaning dealers must include serial numbers, conduct background checks and keep records of transactions.

“It isn’t extreme. It’s just basic common sense,” Biden said when he announced the rule at a White House event last year.

US District Judge Reed O’Connor tossed out the regulation, and a three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had left the core of his ruling in force while it considers the administration’s appeal on an expedited basis. All four lower court judges are Republican appointees.

Alito last week temporarily blocked O’Connor’s order while the high court decided how to handle the case.

The key legal issue is whether gun kits can be classified as “firearms” under a 1968 law that imposes requirements on dealers. The administration contends that kits qualify as firearms because the law covers items that can “readily be converted” into functional weapons. The disputed weapons can be assembled by almost anyone in as little as 20 minutes, US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in court papers.

The rule is being challenged by a collection of manufacturers, dealers, individuals and gun-rights groups. They say the administration is trying to change a 50-year-old understanding of the 1968 Gun Control Act.

The US Supreme Court has just granted a request by Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate – at least for now – a federal regulation aimed at reining in privately made firearms called “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace, Reuters reports.

The news agency further writes:

The justices put on hold a July 5 decision by US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas that had blocked the 2022 rule nationwide pending the administration’s appeal.

O’Connor found that the administration exceeded its authority under a 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act in implementing the rule relating to ghost guns, firearms that are privately assembled and lack the usual serial numbers required by the federal government.

The rule, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2022 to target the rapid proliferation of the homemade weapons, bans “buy build shoot” kits without serial numbers that individuals can get online or at a store without a background check. The kits can be quickly assembled into a working firearm.

The rule clarified that ghost guns qualify as “firearms” under the federal Gun Control Act, expanding the definition of a firearm to include parts and kits that may be readily turned into a gun. It required serial numbers and that manufacturers and sellers be licensed. Sellers under the rule also must run background checks on purchasers prior to a sale.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency matters arising from a group of states including Texas, on July 28 temporarily blocked O’Connor’s decision to give the justices time to decide how to proceed.

The administration on July 27 asked the justices to halt O’Connor’s ruling that invalidated a Justice Department restriction on the sale of ghost gun kits while it appeals to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The administration said that allowing the O’Connor’s ruling to stand would enable an “irreversible flow of large numbers of untraceable ghost guns into our nation’s communities.”

Who is James Uthmeier, Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s newly-designated campaign manager for the Republican’s presidential bid?

Another youthful face now at the head of extremist DeSantis’s campaign, Uthmeier was gubernatorial chief of staff after being DeSantis’s general counsel, but he’s also a former senior adviser to Wilbur Ross, a controversial commerce secretary in the Trump administration.

Reuters further reports that:

It is unclear what direction Uthmeier will take the DeSantis campaign as its new manager. He has relatively little experience with campaigns or electoral politics in general.

The latest shakeup fits into a historical pattern for DeSantis, said Whit Ayres, a Republican operative who was DeSantis’ pollster when he ran for Florida governor in 2018. “This is par for the course for DeSantis’ campaigns. He’s run for Congress three times, and for governor twice. He had different campaign staff for all five campaigns. It is very difficult to run for president the first time if you have nobody around you who has presidential experience,” he added.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has replaced the campaign manager of his bid to win the 2024 Republican nomination for US president, Generra Peck, four days after Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting the DeSantis candidacy, told Reuters he would not donate more money unless the governor changes his approach because “extremism isn’t going to get you elected,” the news agency reports. The new campaign manager will be close adviser James Uthmeier.

Reuters further reports:

Bigelow said he had told Peck, who he called “a very good campaign manager,” that DeSantis needed to be more moderate to have a chance.
Asked how Peck reacted, Bigelow said, laughing: “There was a long period of silence where I thought maybe she had passed out. But I think she took it all in.”
DeSantis is running second in the race for the Republican nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election, but has been sinking in opinion polls for months. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll put his national support at just 13%, far behind former President Trump, at 47%.
“James Uthmeier has been one of Governor DeSantis’ top advisors for years and he is needed where it matters most: working hand in hand with Generra Peck and the rest of the team to put the governor in the best possible position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” Romeo, the communications director, said in a statement.

DeSantis had been facing increasing pressure from donors to change tack in recent months as he continued to drop in the polls and he burned through cash at a faster-than-expected rate.
Dan Eberhart, a prominent Republican donor, suggested that the move was still too tepid.

DeSantis faces a crucial moment on August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the first Republican debate of the 2024 campaign. Donald Trump has said he plans to skip the debate, which would make DeSantis the focus of attacks from other candidates.

Democrats and Republicans are closely watching a special election in Ohio that could indicate if voters, even in red states, are willing to protect abortion access. Buckeye state residents are considering Issue 1, a GOP-backed measure that would make it more difficult to change the state constitution, which reproductives rights advocates are asking voters to do in November to ensure abortion remains legal. Today’s election is viewed as a test of whether the issue, which so animated voters in last year’s midterm elections and was seen as one reason why Democrats nationwide performed better than expected, remains as potent as it once was. Polls close in Ohio at 7.30pm eastern time.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• If Issue 1 is approved in Ohio, election-day turnout will likely be crucial, a top political analyst says.

• Ron DeSantis is replacing his campaign manager in an effort to jump-start his floundering presidential bid.

• The Washington DC grand jury that last week indicted Donald Trump is continuing its work, for reasons that remain unknown.

About a year ago, former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro was indicted for defying a subpoena issued by the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack.

Navarro’s case still has not been resolved, and Politico reports that in a filing today, the ex-president’s ally is seeking to further delay his trial:

Donald Trump’s trial over the election subversion plot is a long way off, and the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that his lawyers are currently wrangling with prosecutors over what evidence the former president can share publicly:

Federal prosecutors asked a federal judge to reject Donald Trump’s request for fewer restrictions over how he can publicly share evidence in the case involving his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, arguing the former president was seeking to abuse the discovery process.

“The defendant seeks to use the discovery material to litigate this case in the media,” prosecutors wrote in an eight-page brief on Monday. “But that is contrary to the purpose of criminal discovery, which is to afford defendants the ability to prepare for and mount a defense in court.”

The court filings, submitted to the US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, highlighted comments made over the weekend by Trump’s lawyer John Lauro about the former vice-president Mike Pence being a potential witness to stress the importance of strict restrictions.

“This district’s rules prohibit defense counsel from doing precisely what he has stated he intends to do with discovery if permitted: publicize, outside of court, details of this case, including the testimony of anticipated witnesses,” prosecutors wrote.

Trump has characterized the indictment, charging him with four felonies over his attempt to obstruct the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January 2021 and overturn the results of the 2020 election, as a political witch-hunt and infringing on his first amendment rights.

To that end, his lawyers filed a brief earlier on Monday asking the judge to issue a less restrictive protective order, a routine step in criminal cases to ensure evidence turned over to defendants in discovery is used to help construct a defense and not to chill witnesses.

CNN reports that the grand jury which last week indicted Donald Trump on charges related to his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election has returned to work in Washington DC:

It’s unclear what evidence prosecutors may be presenting to the jurors.

Ron DeSantis is trying everything to turn his campaign around, including proposing “slitting throats” and, most recently, deploying tactics used in the Iraq war on the US border, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

The rightwing Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has sparked controversy by outlining a hardline border policy of deadly force despite acknowledging that drug traffickers could be difficult to distinguish from migrants crossing into the US.

DeSantis, whose ailing campaign has failed to cut into the lead of the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, said that under his direction as president, US law enforcement on the lookout for drugs would not mistakenly use lethal force on migrants because US agents would have “rules of engagement” similar to police or US forces in war zones like Iraq.

In an NBC interview broadcast on Monday night, the Republican Florida governor was asked about a campaign-trail promise: “If cartels are trying to run product into this country, they’re going to end up stone-cold dead.”

“How do you know you’re using deadly force against the right people?” his interviewer, Dasha Burns, asked.

“Same way a police officer would know,” DeSantis said. “Same way somebody operating in Iraq would know.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s once-promising campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is not looking so hot, and today, The Messenger reports he will replace a top staffer with a veteran from his administration.

From The Messenger’s exclusive:

In his third staff shakeup in less than a month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced his embattled presidential campaign manager with one of his most trusted, and most conservative, advisers: his gubernatorial office’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier.

Outgoing campaign manager Generra Peck will remain as chief strategist on the campaign as part of the restructuring. Peck guided DeSantis’s blowout reelection bid last year, but she quickly became the subject of criticism from DeSantis advisers and donors in mid-July after his presidential campaign stalled and money dried up.

The campaign then twice cut staff and expenses and retooled DeSantis’s press strategy to make him more available to the mainstream media.

But donors and some outside advisers weren’t satisfied, leading DeSantis last week to ask Uthmeier to diagnose problems with the campaign and see if he could fix them. Ultimately, it led the governor to ask Uthmeier to take the job.

Uthmeier shies away from calling the reshuffling a “reboot.” It’s a despised word in the campaign, where advisers prefer to call this the last campaign “reload” — and say they’re going to win, despite the naysayers and early polling.

“People have written Governor DeSantis’s obituary many times,” Uthmeier said in a written statement to The Messenger. “From his race against establishment primary candidate Adam Putnam, to his victory over legacy media-favored candidate Andrew Gillum [in 2018], to his twenty point win over Charlie Crist [in 2022], Governor DeSantis has proven that he knows how to win. He’s breaking records on fundraising and has a supporting super PAC with $100 million in the bank and an incredible ground game. Get ready.”

Here’s what Kyle Kondik, managing editor of political newsletter Sabato’s Crystal Ball, will be assessing today to determine which way Ohio voters are leaning on Issue 1:

Ahead of the Ohio special election today, abortion foes were out on the streets of Cincinnati, encouraging people to vote yes on Issue 1:

Here are scenes from across the state today, as voters head to the polls:

Abortion is not explicitly on the ballot today in Ohio, nor is redistricting. Rather, the question before Buckeye state voters concerns whether to make it harder to get measures that would undermine Republican policies on abortion and redistricting onto ballots in the future. Yes, that is kind of confusing, but fortunately for us, the Guardian’s Ava Sasani is here with an explainer that should answer all your questions:

On Tuesday, Ohio will hold a special election that could make it harder for the state’s voters to amend their own constitution.

Republican lawmakers in May approved “Issue 1,” a proposal that would raise the threshold required to pass any future ballot measure amending Ohio’s constitution from a simple majority to 60% of voters.

Voting “yes” on Issue 1 would make it more difficult for Ohio citizens to amend the state constitution, raising the threshold to 60% of all voters. The change would be effective immediately.

Voting “no” on Issue 1 would keep the current method of creating and passing a citizen-led state constitutional amendment. Since 1912, Ohio has allowed a simple majority of voters to approve constitutional amendments through ballot questions.

If voters today approve Issue 1, the Republican-backed measure that would make it harder to change Ohio’s state constitution via the popular vote, the impacts will extend beyond abortion rights.

While Issue 1’s passage would make it much more difficult for a constitutional amendment protecting access to the procedure to qualify for the November ballot, it would also help the state’s Republican lawmakers protect their political power. How? The Guardian’s Sam Levine explains:

Currently, Ohio requires activists to get a certain number of signatures on petitions, both statewide and in 44 of 88 counties, to send an amendment to the ballot. In each of the 44 counties, the total number of signatures needs to be equivalent to 5% of the vote in that county in the last gubernatorial race. Statewide, the total has to be equivalent to 10% of the same.

Issue 1, the only question on Tuesday’s ballot, would make that process considerably harder. It would require supporters to get the signatures in all 88 counties and then obtain a 60% supermajority for an amendment to pass.

The vote comes just three months before Ohio is to rule on a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights in November. Republicans have openly said that Issue 1 is an attempt to block the abortion measure from passing.

The vote is also an effort to preserve Republican political power in Ohio. Activists in the state are crafting a constitutional amendment that would strip state lawmakers of their ability to draw electoral districts and hand it over to an independent commission instead. Last year, Republicans repeatedly ignored rebukes from the supreme court calling for the redrawing of district lines because they were too distorted in favor of Republicans. Republicans eventually ran out the clock, preserved their supermajority in the state legislature, and then used that supermajority to refer Issue 1 to the ballot.

Polling has been limited and it is difficult to predict the results of a ballot referendum. The average of three polls, all of which have slightly different wording, have shown 35% of Ohioans support the change, 45% oppose it, and 20% aren’t sure, according to FiveThirtyEight. Similar measures to raise the threshold for constitutional amendments in other states have failed in recent years, the outlet noted.

If the measure passes, opponents say, it would effectively institute minority rule in Ohio. Supporters say it should be harder for citizens to amend the state constitution. That argument is not supported by data – roughly 75% of the citizen-initiated constitutional amendments over the last century have failed. Ohio also allows the legislature to send constitutional amendments to the ballot and voters have approved 106 out of 157 since 1914, according to cleveland.com.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. The state of Ohio is holding an unusual special election in the middle of the summer today, where voters are being asked what seems like a fairly innocuous question: should the bar for changing the state constitution via a ballot initiative be raised to 60% support, from its current simple majority? But the measure, which would also increase the number of signatures required for campaigners to get an initiative on the ballot, is, in fact, a Republican-backed attempt to undermine a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access that is expected to go to voters in November. If the measure up for consideration today, known as Issue 1, succeeds, it could make it much more difficult for the abortion amendment to qualify for the ballot.

Republicans dominate the state government in right-leaning Ohio, and even before Roe v Wade was overturned, passed a law restricting the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, though its implementation is currently blocked by a judge’s ruling. But even in red states, reproductive rights advocates and their Democratic allies have seen success in protecting abortion at the ballot box, and they’re hoping to repeat that today.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Mike Pence said he has qualified to appear on the stage when the first Republican presidential debate is hosted on 23 August.

• Joe Biden is in Arizona, where he will designate a new national monument near the Grand Canyon intended to protect the national park from mining.

• Legal wrangling continues in Donald Trump’s case over the attempts to overturn the 2020 election, with the judge yesterday ordering a hearing to consider prosecutors’ request for limits on what information the former president can share publicly.