Petitions for Constitutional Amendments Certified

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—The Ohio Attorney General’s Office Monday certified two petitions for proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution.

On November 17, 2017, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office received two written petitions to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “The Initiative and Referendum Amendment for Counties and Townships” and “The Ohio Community Rights Amendment,” from a petitioning committee called Ohio Community Rights. The petitions were both certified today as containing both the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters and a “fair and truthful” summary of the proposed amendment. 

“Without passing upon the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure to be referred, but pursuant to the duties imposed upon the Attorney General’s Office […] I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law,” Attorney General DeWine stated in the certification letter for each petition. 

Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the amendments each contain a single issue or multiple issues. The petitioners must then collect signatures for each issue from registered voters in each of 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, equal to 5 percent of the total vote cast in the county for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election. Total signatures collected statewide must also equal 10 percent of the total vote cast for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election.

The full text of Monday’s letters and the amendment petitions submitted can be found at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Petitions.