Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Tuesday, August 8th. I'm Naila Boudou. Today,

a renewed push to get felons the right to vote in 2024. Plus, severe weather across

the U.S. But first, how Ohio could provide an anti-abortion blueprint for other states.

That's today's one big thing. Today, voters in a special election in Ohio will decide

how easy it should be to amend the state constitution. The ballot proposal, called Issue 1, is getting

national attention because of what it could mean for abortion rights in Ohio. And it's

a fact on special interests in that state and beyond. Troy Smith is a reporter with Exxios

Cleveland. Hi, Troy. Welcome to Exxios today. Hi, thanks. Troy, what exactly is Issue 1 proposing?

Issue 1 proposes raising the threshold to amend the Ohio Constitution from what has been

a simple majority for a very long time to 60 percent. Do other states have similar thresholds

or would Ohio be the first to change it to this? Ohio would actually be the second highest

threshold. New Hampshire is 66 percent. Is there a threshold? Florida is at 60 and Colorado

is at 55. And what's the backstory behind this? Why is there this effort to raise this threshold

for amending the Constitution? Well, the Republican lawmakers who came up with this election

and Issue 1 will tell you it's to protect the state from out of state interests. But there's

an amendment to enshrine abortion rights on the Ohio Constitution that will be voted on

in November. And Republican lawmakers want to make it harder for that to pass. The message

for Issue 1 from the Republicans and the anti-abortion activists is that the goal for Issue 1 is

to prevent out of state interests from coming into play. But the reality is the majority

of money leading the campaign for Issue 1 is coming from an out of state conservative

billionaire. When you talk to folks on the ground in Cleveland or other parts of Ohio,

is this really, to most people's minds, about abortion and abortion access? It is, and

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