The Ohio Ballot Board has certified a proposed initiated statute concerning Medicaid as containing only one proposed law, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Thursday.

Petitioners must now collect 115,574 signatures, equal to 3 percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010, to bring the issue before the General Assembly for consideration.

Petitioners must file the required number of valid signatures with the Secretary of State’s Office not less than 10 days prior to the start of any legislative session in a calendar year in order to get the issue on that year’s General Election ballot.

The General Assembly has four months to act on the proposed law. If lawmakers do not pass the law, pass it in an amended form or take no action after four months, petitioners may collect additional signatures to place the issue on the ballot. The number of supplemental signatures required is 115,574, equal to 3 percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010.

As part of the total number of signatures needed for both the initial and supplemental signatures filed, petitioners must also collect signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, collect enough signatures equal to one and one-half percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010, in that county.

Members of the Ballot Board are Husted, chair; Mark Griffin, vice chair; state Sens. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, and Bill Coley, R-Liberty Township in Montgomery County; and and William N. Morgan.

John Arthur Hutchison
JHutchison@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @newsheraldjah