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Yost Rejects Ballot Initiative's Petition Summary Language

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected language for a potential ballot issue on voting. The group behind the initiative to expand and solidify voter rights says they remain committed to the issue.

The petition language for what's known as the "Secure and Fair Elections Amendment" was turned down by the AG's office.

A statement from the Attorney General's Office said the role of the AG is to determine whether the petition summary is a "fair and truthful representation of the proposed amendment."

The AG says it was rejected because the summary of the proposed constitutional amendment is longer than the proposed amendment itself and the summary includes a paragraph of text that is not included in the proposed amendment.

The ACLU of Ohio is backing the proposed constitutional amendment that would, among other things, create automatic voter registration through the BMV and allow same-day registration and voting.

The group acknowledges that rejected petition language is a common practice and it says they will be refiling.

They need to collect nearly 443,000 valid signatures by July to qualify for the November ballot.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau

Andy Chow is a general assignment state government reporter who focuses on environmental, energy, agriculture, and education-related issues. He started his journalism career as an associate producer with ABC 6/FOX 28 in Columbus before becoming a producer with WBNS 10TV.