Ohio ballot measure: All laws that apply to the people of Ohio shall apply equally to the members and employees of the General Assembly
COLUMBUS – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today certified two petitions for proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution.
The unrelated proposals regard the issuance of bonds for energy initiatives and new restrictions for members and employees of the Ohio General Assembly.
On March 4, the Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “The Ohio Clean Energy Initiative," the sixth such submission under that title. The submission was 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.
Also on March 4, the Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “The Ohio Ethics First Amendment," from the group Ethics First – You Decide Ohio Committee. The submission was 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.
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The Ohio Ethics First Amendment states in part that “All laws that apply to the people of Ohio and its political subdivisions shall apply equally to the members and employees of the General Assembly.”
The Ethics First Amendment is a constitutional amendment proposed for the Ohio ballot on November 8, 2016.
“Without passing upon the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure to be referred,…I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law,” Ohio Attorney Mike General DeWine stated in his certification letters.
Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the amendment contains 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 today’s letter and of the amendment petitions submitted can be found at http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Petitions