By a 4-1 margin, Jackson County Republican voters expressed a desire for a constitutional amendment opposing abortion during the July 20 GOP primary.
According to Ron Johnson, chairman of the county’s Republican Party, 82 percent of the participants in the Republican Primary in Jackson County answered “Yes” to the question: Do you support an amendment to the Georgia State Constitution so as to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from the earliest biological beginnings until natural death?
“It was on the ballot in 46 counties. It passed by 75 percent overall,” said Johnson. “In Jackson County it was 82 percent.”
The referendum is nonbinding, but it could be a precursor to an attempt in an upcoming legislative session to further curtail women’s ability to have abortions. It appears to be an attempt to establish the position that life begins with conception, but the statement could also be used to attempt to eliminate the death penalty.
“I don’t know,” said Johnson. “They asked us to do it so I brought it to the Executive Committee and we decided to let the voters have a say on it. I’m a guy who says let the people vote.”
Johnson said in Butts County voters in both the Republican and Democratic primaries July 20 were asked the question. Seventy-six percent of Republican voters answered in the affirmative and 72 percent of Democrats did the same.
The print edition of The Commerce News story contained two errors. First, it used the 75-percent passing figure for Jackson County. And in the final paragraph it did not specify Butts County as the location where the question was on both the Democratic and Republican ballots.
