§ 3519.01Initiative and referendum petitions

(A) Only one proposal of law or constitutional amendment to be proposed by initiative petition
shall be contained in an initiative petition to enable the voters to vote on that proposal
separately. A petition shall include the text of any existing statute or constitutional provision
that would be amended or repealed if the proposed law or constitutional amendment is
adopted.
 Whoever seeks to propose a law or constitutional amendment by initiative petition shall, by a
written petition signed by one thousand qualified electors, submit the proposed law or
constitutional amendment, a title, and a summary of it to the attorney general for examination.
Within ten days after the receipt of the written petition and the title and summary of it, the
attorney general shall conduct an examination of the title and summary. If, in the opinion of
the attorney general, the title and summary are fair and truthful statements of the proposed
law or constitutional amendment, the attorney general shall so certify and then forward the
submitted petition to the Ohio ballot board for its approval under division (A) of section
3505.062 of the Revised Code. If the Ohio ballot board returns the submitted petition to the
attorney general with its certification as described in that division, the attorney general shall
then file with the secretary of state a verified copy of the proposed law or constitutional
amendment together with its title and summary and the attorney general's certification.
 Whenever the Ohio ballot board divides an initiative petition into individual petitions
containing only proposed law or constitutional amendment under division (A) of section
3505.062 of the Revised Code resulting in the need for the petitioners to resubmit to the
attorney general appropriate titles and summaries for each of the individual petitions arising
from the board's division of the initiative petition, the attorney general shall review the
resubmitted titles and summaries, within ten days after their receipt, to determine if they are
fair and truthful statements of the respective proposed laws or constitutional amendments
and, if so, certify them. These resubmissions shall contain no new explanations or arguments.
Then, the attorney general shall file with the secretary of state a verified copy of each of the
proposed laws or constitutional amendments together with their respective titles and
summaries and the attorney general's certification of each.
 (B)(1) Whoever seeks to file a referendum petition against any law, section, or item in any
law shall, by a written petition signed by one thousand qualified electors, submit the measure


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to be referred, a title, and a summary of it to the secretary of state and, on the same day or
within one business day before or after that day, submit a copy of the petition, measure, title,
and summary to the attorney general.
 (2) Not later than ten business days after receiving the petition, measure, title, and summary,
the secretary of state shall do both of the following:
(a) Have the validity of the signatures on the petition verified;
 (b) After comparing the text of the measure to be referred with the copy of the enrolled act on
file in the secretary of state's office containing the law, section, or item of law, determine
whether the text is correct and, if it is, so certify.
 (3) Not later than ten business days after receiving a copy of the petition, measure, title, and
summary, the attorney general shall examine the title and summary and, if in the attorney
general's opinion, the title and summary are fair and truthful statements of the measure to be
referred, so certify.
 (C) Any person who is aggrieved by a certification decision under division (A) or (B) of this
section may challenge the certification or failure to certify of the attorney general in the
supreme court, which shall have exclusive, original jurisdiction in all challenges of those
certification decisions.
 (D) An initiative or referendum petition, the summary of which the attorney general certified
under this section before the effective date of this amendment, is not invalid on the ground
that the attorney general did not certify the title of the petition in accordance with this section.




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