COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohioans on Tuesday will vote on several key races to decide the fate of the Buckeye State. One of the most important races will be who fills the Ohio Supreme Court for the next six years.

Six candidates from three different races are vying for a seat at the Ohio Supreme Court. Whoever wins will decide the balance of the court in Ohio. Meanwhile, Partisan labels were added previously to nonpartisan races in 2021. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Ohio Supreme Court will soon get new justices to fill seats after the election

  • The justices would fill seats for the next six years

  • Six candidates are vying for seats in three different races

The current Supreme Court makeup of the court is that Republicans hold a 4 to 3 majority on the court. But three races are up for grabs, including one which pits two of the current justices against each other.

Republican Joe Deters is giving up the rest of his current term to try to unseat Democrat Melody Stewart. That means his old seat is up grabs between Democrat Lisa Forbes and Republican Dan Hawkins. The other race features Democratic incumbent Michael Donnelly being challenged by Republican Megan Shanahan.

"Across the country, this is the most significant state supreme court set of races that we see because it could really transform the court," said David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.  

Over the course of the next two years, the court could rule on everything from political maps to parental rights. But perhaps the biggest topic will be abortion access. As for the poltical maps, many believe that regardless of whether Issue 1 passes the process of drawing the electoral maps will end up back before the state’s high court.

"These are folks who have a very practical ability to say when Ohioans voted to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution," said Niven. "What does that actually mean in terms of what the legislature can and can't do to limit abortion access? These are folks who will scrutinize the next set of maps when lawmakers or the new Citizens Commission draws up maps for Congress in the state, and they'll be the ones who apply constitutional standards to that. So bottom line, these folks basically touch every issue you care about." 

As for other issues, Case Western Reserve Law Professor Atiba Ellis brought up he's expecting the issue of guns in school to also be a conversation at the high court. 

"Certainly also, there were some past litigation around gun rights that was in favor of parents," Ellis said. "As opposed to arming school teachers, but, with a new Ohio's Supreme Court majority.That issue could come up again and it would be decided again before that court." 

Polls open on Election Day from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.