A bill signed by Gov. John Kasich on Friday that is meant to create a more fair and uniform law could make it harder for citizens to repeal or put forth legislation through initiatives and referendums.
Senate Bill 47 reduces the number of days citizens can collect signatures for citizen initiative and referendum petitions, like the one that successfully overturned Senate Bill 5 in 2011.
Organizers have a 90-day period to collect signatures for referendums, after which they must turn the signatures in to be verified by the secretary of state and the 88 county boards of elections. Once the initial signatures are verified, the secretary of state may grant a 10-day “cure” period for more signatures to be collected if the initial batch did not have enough.
Before SB 47 was passed, while the initial signatures were being confirmed —a process that has taken anywhere from 16 to 58 days — organizers could continue to collect signatures, said Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Hamilton, who proposed the bill. SB 47 would eliminate the collection of signatures during verification, removing at least 16 days of potential signature collection.
“Our constitution does not address whether you can continue to collect signatures after the initial batch is turned in and before the ‘cure’ period begins,” Seitz said.
The Bill of Rights Committee based in Athens is currently collecting signatures for a citizen initiative to ban fracking within city limits as well as in towns and villages upstream. The group’s initiative will not be affected by SB 47, which does not go into effect until 90 days after Kasich signed it into law last Friday, but will apply to any future citizen initiatives and referendums in Ohio.
Councilwoman Christine Knisely, D-at large, said she believes SB 47 will hinder the ability of future initiatives and referendums.
“The signature-gathering process, especially on a statewide basis, is extremely difficult for organizations utilizing volunteers,” she said. “To shorten the petition-gathering time makes this even more difficult.”
The concern is that the secretary of state or one of the boards of elections that wants the referendum to succeed could give enough time for organizers to obtain more signatures to get the referendum on the ballot, Seitz said. He added that the opposite could be true, and the verification process could be rushed to minimize chances of getting the referendum on the ballot.
“We think we’re bringing clarity to a process that is capable of being misused,” Seitz said.
He said the idea for SB 47 can be compared to a challenge of a play in football.
“When the replay official goes into the replay booth to determine whether a play was called correctly or not, the teams do not keep playing while he’s reviewing the previous play,” he said. “That should be the rule here.”
Sen. Lou Gentile, D-Steubenville, voted “no” on SB 47 and said the bill is a clear attempt by partisan politicians to curtail the ability of average citizens to use the initiative and referendum processes.
“We shouldn’t be looking for ways to limit the ability of Ohioans to appeal laws that are going to be harmful to them,” Gentile said. “The referendum process has been available to Ohioans since 1912. It is an important check on legislative power.”
If Ohioans want to repeal SB 47, they will have to collect enough signatures within the 90 days that began when Kasich signed SB 47 last Friday.
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