COLUMBUS – Secretary of State Jon Husted today certified that We Are Ohio, the group seeking a state referendum on Senate Bill 5, has met the initial 1,000-signature requirement on each of the two petitions they filed to qualify for the November 2011 ballot. Petitioners collected 2,835 signatures for the short version of the petition, of which 2,506 were deemed valid, and 2,866 for the long version of the petition, of which 2,517 were deemed valid. The Secretary also approved the full text of the law submitted with the signatures.

The Ohio Constitution requires petitioners seeking to place a referendum on the ballot to first submit 1,000 valid signatures and the full text of the law, or section of the law, to the Secretary of State’s office for certification. Once the signatures and law text have been certified by the Secretary of State, and the petition summary has been certified by the Attorney General, petitioners may begin collecting the required 231,147 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot.

Petitioners will have until June 30, 2011, to collect the required signatures.

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For more information, contact Matt McClellan at 614-995-2168 or mmcclellan@sos.state.oh.us.