ResponsibleOhio has said it expects to challenge the evaluation of a few signatures that were tossed out.
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The constitutional amendment would mark one of the nation’s most significant leaps in marijuana policy, taking Ohio from a complete prohibition against pot to legalization for both medical and recreational use.
“It’s unbelievable the amount of signatures that are not done the right way”, said Husted.
Pro-marijuana group ResponsibleOhio plans to submit supplemental signatures for its marijuana legalization petition hours earlier than planned to ensure the signatures arrive before the secretary of state’s office closes its doors. It would also set up a network of 10 authorized growing locations around the state (including one in Lorain), some that have already attracted private investors, and lay out a regulatory and taxation scheme for cannabis. The secretary of state has appointed David E. Bowers, former Allen County prosecutor, to investigate what has been characterized as potential fraud in connection with the first batch of signatures filed on June 30.
Mr. Husted’s office on Wednesday issued subpoenas for the testimony of Mr. James and for records from The Strategy Network, his professional firm running the petition process.
That prompted ResponsibleOhio to send Columbus attorney Donald McTigue to court.
And, Husted said there have been complaints to local boards of elections that signature gatherers have been breaking the rules, such as knowingly getting signatures from non-registered voters and even children. At least 305,591 were needed to put the marijuana advocacy group’s amendment on the November ballot.
But Mr. Husted’s office later said the paper petitions sent to county boards of elections for review actually contained about 660,000 raw signatures.
James has questioned the signature count reported by the secretary of state, alleging that 40,000 names were not counted and 20,000 were improperly invalidated. Another 384,104 were deemed invalid.
The group’s validation rate at that time was 39.7 percent.
“We have always been planning to be here”, Eck said.
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ResponsibleOhio had a 10-day grace period to fix its petitions.
