DeWine rejects Ohio abortion measure

Submitted information

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Monday rejected a petition for the proposed constitutional amendment because the petitioners did not submit the minimum valid signatures required.

On September 2, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “To prohibit abortion of all human beings, without exception, and classifying it as aggravated murder in the State of Ohio.”

The submission contained part petitions with 1,006 submitted signatures. The part petitions were submitted to the respective boards of elections for signature verification. Of the 1,000 minimum signatures required to proceed with the constitutional amendment, the boards of elections reported receiving a total of only 842 valid signatures.

“Because your submission did not contain the verified signatures of at least one thousand qualified electors, we must reject it,” DeWine stated in his letter rejecting the petition. “Due to your failure to meet the signature threshold, I have not made any determination concerning the fairness and truthfulness of your proposed summary.”

In order for a constitutional amendment to proceed, an initial petition containing summary language of the amendment and 1,000 signatures from Ohio registered voters must be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General. Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board would 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 Monday’s letter and of the initiative petitions submitted can be found at  www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Petitions.