Opponents of a new law limiting absentee voting and early voting and making numerous other changes to Ohio elections law filed an additional 166,481 signatures Tuesday to virtually guarantee that voters will serve as final judges on the measure next year.
Led largely by former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and fellow Democrats and with support from President Obama’s campaign, the latest petition filings are expected to be far more than the roughly 10,000 needed to patch a hole in the coalition’s first filing at the end of September.
The group never stopped gathering signatures during the period that boards of elections scrutinized their first petitions. The referendum on House Bill 194 would appear on the November, 2012, ballot. In the meantime, the law will remain on hold.
Supporters of the law said it was needed to put all of Ohio’s 88 counties on the same page, particularly when it came to offering extra hours for early voting and the counting of provisional ballots, the ballot of last resort for voters whose eligibility is in question.
Full Article: Ohio ballot in ’12 likely to include election law – Toledo Blade.