Petition Drives

Petition drives/direct democracy are being used increasingly in Ohio to change the Constitution and pass or repeal laws. If you need more information to decide whether to sign a petition or to help a petition drive, check out this area. 

Issue 5 (2008) was an referendum to support a recently passed law that restricted the rates that could be charged by payday lenders in Ohio. It passed by 63.6% to 36.4% See this page for more information about other issues on the 2008 Ohio ballot.

Ohio 2012 ballot measures (Ballotpedia.org)

2023 was a important year for petition drives. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, a 6-week abortion ban enacted by Ohio's Republican legislature went into effect and was stayed by a court a few weeks later. But, while in effect there was the 10-year-old rape victim who was forced to go to Indiana in order to get an abortion. Predictable callousness by Republican officials galvanized a doctor-led petition drive to enshrine protections for reproductive rights into the Ohio Constitution. This effort succeeded (despite misleading ballot language) and Issue 1 was passed by a 13 point margin in the November 2023 general election.

This success was especially notable in light of an effort by the Ohio legislature and office holders to restrict the ability of Ohioans to initiate and pass constitutional amendments through the petition process. This change to the Ohio Constitution was put forth in an August 2023 Special Election (suspicious, since they had just done away with most August elections). This effort (also Issue 1) failed.

There was also a petition drive to legalize marijuana use through statute on the 2023 November ballot as Issue 2 which passed by a wide margin.

Looking forward to 2024, a new petition drive to reform the process of drawing the dictrict maps that are used to elect representatives will begin. In 2015 and 2018, there were petition drives to place what were hoped to be the answer to gerrymandering in Ohio. Both reforms passed with votes in excess of 71%. However, the reforms were developed in conjunction with the legislature and then they chose to not even follow the rules they had helped to create as well as ignoring the Supreme Court of Ohio when they tried to enforce the Constitiution.

The 2024 effort will center around removing political actors from the process of drawing district lines entirely. The organization heading this effort is Citizens Not Politicians. Pease consider donating, volunteering, and signing the petition when you see one.