COLUMBUS – The Ohio Ballot Board today certified the proposed constitutional amendment known as the “Ohio Clean Energy Initiative” as a single ballot issue and the “Ohio Ethics First Amendment” each as three separate issues.
Petitioners for the “Ohio Clean Energy Initiative” will now need to collect 305,591 signatures, which is equal to 10 percent of the total vote cast for governor in 2014, in order to place the issue on the ballot. As part of the total number of signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, petitioners must also have collected signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, collect enough signatures equal to five percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2014.
Section 3519.01 of the Ohio Revised Code has long required that a statewide ballot issue may contain only one proposal and the Ballot Board is required to make the single or multiple issue designation by section 3505.062 of the Ohio Revised Code. This long-standing principle is unrelated to the people’s passage of State Issue 2 from the November 3, 2015 General Election.
The Ballot Board certified the “Ohio Ethics First Amendment” as three separate ballot issues, as follows:
The first ballot question will include paragraphs A, B, E and F of the proposal.
The second ballot question will include paragraph C of the proposal.
The third ballot question will include paragraph D of the proposal.
The proposal as-written is available for download below.
Prior to gathering additional signatures, petitioners for the “Ohio Ethics First Amendment” will need to submit to the Attorney General summaries of the three separate ballot initiatives. Should the Attorney General find their newly-submitted summaries to be fair and truthful, the petitioners will need to collect 305,591 signatures for each of the three ballot proposals, an amount equal to 10 percent of the total vote cast for governor in 2014. They, too, must collect signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, collect enough signatures equal to five percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2014.
Secretary Husted serves as the Chairman of the Ohio Ballot Board in his official capacity as the Ohio Secretary of State. Other members include State Senator Bill Coley, State Representative Kathleen Clyde, Former State Senator Nina Turner and Mr. William Morgan. Ballot Board meetings are open to the public.
