The Akron Legal News

Changes in petition requirements for amendments proposed

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: September 13, 2019

Members of the Civil Justice Committee in the Ohio House of Representatives last week took a first look at a joint resolution calling for a change to the signature requirements for petition-driven amendments to the state constitution.

Specifically, House Joint Resolution 1 proposes a requirement for any proposed constitutional amendment by initiative petition to have signatures from at least 10 percent of the electors from each of 53 of the counties of Ohio.

Under the current constitution, petitions must include signatures from at least half of Ohio's 88 counties, signed by not less than five percent of the electors of that county.

The resolution's changes are limited to two sections of Article II of the constitution.

In Section 1a the following language is added: "The petition shall include, from each of fifty-three of the counties of the state, petitions bearing the signatures of not less than ten per cent of the electors of that county."

Section 1g includes removal of pronouns replaced with proper nouns such as "signer" and "circulator."

"The Ohio Constitution reserves to the people the power of initiative, which allows the electors - people who are registered to vote in Ohio - to propose an amendment to the Ohio Constitution," attorney Abby McMahon wrote in the Ohio Legislative Service Commission's analysis of the joint resolution. "To propose a constitutional amendment by initiative petition, petitioners must file with the Secretary of State a petition that is signed by 10 percent of the electors, based on the most recent vote for governor."

Under continuing law, if the petition is valid, the secretary of state must submit the proposed amendment to the electors at the next regular or general election that occurs 125 days after the petition is filed.

Additionally, the proposed amendment must be approved by an affirmative vote of a majority of the electors.

"If conflicting proposed amendments are approved at the same election, the amendment that received the highest number of affirmative votes is adopted," McMahon added.

Another provision of the proposal specifies that the amendment is to appear on the ballot on Nov. 5.

Additionally, the resolution provides that, if adopted by a majority of electors voting on it, the proposal would take effect immediately.

"Generally, under current law, an approved amendment takes effect 30 days after the election at which it was approved," McMahon concluded in her analysis.

Springfield Rep. Kyle Koehler, a Republican, sponsored the measure, which had not been scheduled a second hearing at time of publication.

[Back]