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������ students are expressing satisfaction with the results of the Nov. 7 election in Ohio. Longtime local voter advocate Barbara Hipsman Springer said that voter turnout in Portage County exceeded expectations.

Voter turnout for Portage County overall was at 53%, said Hipsman Springer, who is a retired Kent State associate professor from the School of Media and Journalism. She said keeping the rolls updated is always a challenge as students graduate and move, but she was pleased with this year’s results. “This was a good turnout,” she said.

Two major issues on the ballot, Issue 1 – which protects womens' right to make their own decisions when it comes to reproductive health  – passed by 57% among Ohioans; and Issue 2 – which makes recreational marijuana use legal in the state – also garned 57% of the votes in the state.

Kent State Today spoke to students on campus and around the community to get their thoughts on election results.

“As a Black woman, I feel strongly about both Issue 1 and Issue 2. I'm ecstatic that both of them have passed,” said A’kyra Holley, a peace and conflict studies major with a minor in pre-law is from Akron. On Issue 1, she said: “I think that women deserve to have more of a conversation and deserve to be in the conversation and lead the conversation when it comes to their bodies and habits. I think that there have been so many stories of unfair things and unfair ways that women have had to go through birth or experience, those kinds of things. So, I feel like this will help come in that aspect, that kind of mitigate, not mitigate, but take some of that away and do something better in the future.”

About Issue 2, Holley said, “I'm really excited to see what will happen for the Black community now that marijuana has passed. I think it's so impactful that now we can look back and say, OK, this is – already knowing that it was wrong – but now put into law that this was wrong. And now people have the opportunity to be free, to go back to their lives and to live when they should have had that opportunity a long time ago. So, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for us and I'm very excited for Ohio. Good job. Keep going.”

Jaden Lepp, a sophomore aerospace engineering major from Kent, Ohio, said he was glad that both ballot measures passed, and was particularly happy to see the abortion issue pass by a large margin. 

“I’m glad that Ohioans agree on that,” he said. “I feel that had it not passed, literally people’s lives would be in danger. I think this will allow for more access to care.” 

Reporting by Lisa Abraham, April McClellan-Copeland, Phil Soencksen and Emily Vincent.