Ohio rejects recreational pot issue lacking valid petition signatures

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday that he has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state for lack of valid signatures.

On March 17, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “Marijuana Rights and Regulations.” The submission contained part petitions with 1,248 submitted signatures. The part petitions were then submitted to the respective boards of elections for signature verification. Of the 1,000 minimum signatures required to proceed with the constitutional amendment, those boards of elections reported receiving a total of only 271 valid signatures.

“Because your submission did not contain the verified signatures of at least one thousand qualified electors, we must reject it,” Yost wrote in the letter to the petitioning committee. “Finally, because the petition failed to meet the signature threshold, I have not made any determination concerning the fairness and truthfulness of the proposed summary.”

In order for a constitutional amendment to proceed, an initial petition containing summary language of the amendment and at least 1,000 valid signatures from Ohio registered voters must be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General.