Cincinnati voters have approved an amendment to the city charter that makes it easier for candidates and citizen-led ballot measures to get on the ballot. Issue 23 also includes several other "clean-up" measures for the charter.
LEARN MORE: Explaining Cincinnati's Issue 23, the 'least controversial issue on the ballot'
Before this amendment, Cincinnati had no specific rules for proposing a charter amendment. Council Member Liz Keating proposed the changes and says she's excited voters supported it.
"It's something that we've worked on for almost two years now," Keating told WVXU. "Just cleaning up the charter, being able to find more efficiencies, create more transparency for the public, and help other areas of government."
Here's what Issue 23 will do.
Related to ballot initiatives, referenda, and charter amendments
The amendment requires a copy of any initiative, referendum, or charter amendment petition to be filed with the Clerk of Council before any signatures can be collected. Councilmember Liz Keating, who proposed the amendment, says this mirrors Ohio law for statewide ballot measures.
"It does not make it harder to collect signatures, it doesn't raise the number of signatures you have to collect, it simply just requires you to file it publicly so the public can be aware of what is being circulated," Keating told WVXU before the election.
The amendment would also limit citizen-led ballot measures to just one topic.
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And the amendment would also add a "cure period" for ballot measures and candidates for mayor and council. If petitions are submitted without the required number of valid signatures, the candidate or ballot measure petitioner could collect more to add to the total, as long as they're submitted by the deadline. Currently, you have to start over from scratch.
Related to official City Council voting
The measure gives council permission to vote electronically instead of only by voice vote.
Keating says the city law department has always interpreted the charter's "yay or nay vote" requirement to mean a vocal vote is required. That means the Clerk of Council has to call all nine council members by name to record each vote, for every single agenda item.
Sometimes a single ordinance requires three separate votes, if the measure is passed as an emergency (allowing it to go into effect immediately instead of in 30 days), and/or if council suspends the rule requiring three separate readings before a final vote.
"So what this does is it clarifies that council can vote on these legislation by any public means," Keating said. "It doesn't mean that we could vote remotely ... all this does is just allow us to push a button that could do a green light [or] red light or put our name on a board under yes or no. There's many different ways to do this."
This change in the city charter doesn't establish a particular method, only makes that option a possibility.
Related to candidates in city elections
As described above, the amendment establishes a "cure period" for candidates filing petitions to be a candidate for mayor or city council. If petitions are submitted without the required number of valid signatures, the candidate could collect more to add to the total, as long as they're submitted by the deadline. Currently, you have to start over from scratch.
LISTEN: Liz Keating discusses her proposal to 'clean up' the city's charter
The charter amendment also clarifies that candidate petitions circulators must sign a statement rather than provide a notarized affidavit with their petitions.
The amendment slightly modifies the process for what happens if a mayor leaves office early enough in the term to trigger a special election. The charter currently says candidates must submit petitions at least 50 days before the special election; separately, state law requires the Hamilton County Board of Elections to mail ballots to overseas voters at least 46 days before the election. That leaves only four days for the BOE to certify signatures and determine whether a candidate has met the threshold to be on the ballot.
"So the Board of Elections actually asked the city to add to this charter amendment ... We pushed it back to 60 days ahead of time to build in an extra 10 days to give board of elections a little bit more time," Keating said.
Related to council terms
Lastly, the charter amendment changes all references to four-year city council terms within the charter.
RELATED: A conversation between Liz Keating and Denise Driehaus
City voters first approved four-year council terms in 2012, then decided to go back to two-year terms in the 2018 election. Not all relevant portions of the charter were updated when they should have been.
Full amendment:
