Petition Process

The Ohio Constitution was amended on September 3, 1912, establishing the right of Ohioans to submit initiative petitions directly to the voters to:

• • Initiate amendments
  • Initiate new laws
  • Repeal current laws

The constitution of Ohio has been amended 173 times by the will of the citizens of Ohio. Most of these amendments were proposed and put on the ballot by the legislature. However at times the citizens want something different than the legislature, or to change something the legislature has passed.

The Initiative Petition to be submitted directly to the electors is an avenue for Ohioan to make changes when the legislature is unwilling or incapable. It is a lot of work to get a citizen lead initiative on the ballot so Ohioans can vote for or against it. We call this a 2 phase process.

Phase 1

A group of three to five citizens form a committee to define and propose a petition. This group must collect 1000 valid elector signatures showing they have support among the citizenry. The next step is to present the full petition, the names of the group, and all the original signatures to the Attorney General of Ohio. The Attorney General will conduct a “fair and truthful” determination of the summary and proposed law.

Have questions about the process? Here are some answers to questions from the Attorney Generals office.

Within 10 days the Attorney General will either reject the petition or certify it. If it is rejected, the committee can make changes and collect 1000 new signatures and start over. When it is certified, the Attorney General will send it to the Secretary of State who has 10 days to hold a meeting of the Ballot Board to confirm the petition is only 1 issue. A petition determined to have more than 1 issue will be sent back to the committee to split it into the issues as determined by the Ballot Board.

Have questions about the above Initiative Petition? Visit our FAQ page for answers.

Phase 2

Once Phase 1 is complete, now it is time for Ohioans to sign petitions. We have all been asked to sign a petition over the last few years. Some have failed, some have passed, and unfortunately, some never made it to the ballot.

For Phase 2, the committee must gather signatures from 10% of the last gubernatorial election. Meaning approximately 450,000 signatures of registered voters. Additionally, these signatures must be at least 5% of the gubernatorial voters from 44 of the 88 counties.

This is a major reason many large political groups from outside Ohio get behind Constitutional Amendments because they will pay people to collect signatures. We are not affiliated with any large political group but we are hearing the cries of average Ohioans because of the ever increasing Property Taxes.

If you have questions not answered here or would like to help, reach out to us as [email protected]