Husted certifies Health Care Freedom Amendment signatures
Petitioners have met Constitutional requirements to place issue on November ballot

COLUMBUS – Secretary of State Jon Husted today certified 426,998 signatures for a Constitutional Amendment related to the federal healthcare reform legislation, meeting the necessary requirements to place the amendment on the 2011 November ballot. Petitioners needed 385,245 signatures or 10 percent of the total vote cast for Governor in 2010.

As part of the total number of signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, petitioners also needed to collect signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, to collect enough signatures equal to five percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010. Petitioners met this requirement in 82 counties.

Having met the requirements to place the issue on the ballot, the next step in the process is for the Ballot Board to convene to approve the ballot language that voters will consider in November. The Ballot Board is scheduled to meet on August 3, 2011.