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Fall-ballot ruling awaited on health-care law...
Ohio justices have days to weigh challenge to petitions

By David Eggert
Wednesday August 10, 2011 

The Ohio Supreme Court must decide soon whether voters can weigh in on a ballot measure seeking to exempt Ohioans from being forced to buy health insurance. 

After supporters of the new federal health-care law challenged the validity of more than 69,000 petition signatures on Friday, justices set an accelerated schedule for legal briefs to be filed no later than yesterday. 

It is unclear whether the high court will hear arguments or go ahead and rule. The deadline for a decision is Monday. If the court does not rule, the signatures automatically are deemed sufficient, and Issue 3 will appear on the November ballot. 

Secretary of State Jon Husted recently certified 426,998 signatures for the constitutional amendment; 385,245 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters — 10 percent of the votes cast for governor in 2010 — were required. 

If the court tosses the challenged signatures, supporters of the ballot proposal will fall short of the number needed. Whether they would get time to file additional signatures they’ve already gathered and to collect more would be up to the court. 

Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio.org, makes two arguments in the lawsuit: that some paid circulators did not disclose the name of their employer; and that circulators who were independent contractors should have registered with the secretary of state. Tens of thousands of signatures they gathered are invalid, Rothenberg said. 

The independent contractors should have said they were employed by themselves, not others, according to the suit. 

Husted said yesterday that Ohio law is clear and that enough signatures were collected. 

“To argue that part-petitions are somehow invalid because circulators provided too much information goes against the intent of the law, which is designed to ensure full disclosure and transparency,” he said in a statement. 

Read it at the Columbus Dispatch

 


 
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