Ohio National Popular Vote for President Initiative (2019)
| Ohio National Popular Vote for President Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 2019 | |
| Topic Elections and campaigns | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Ohio National Popular Vote for President Initiative was not on the ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 5, 2019.[1]
This initiative would have added a new section to the state constitution to do the following:
- state that it is the "will of the People that every vote for President be valued equally and that the candidate who wins the most votes nationally becomes President" and
- require the legislature to enact laws to direct all of Ohio's presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote (NPV).[2][3]
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
- See also: Ohio Constitution
The measure would have added Article XX to the Ohio Constitution. The following underlined text would have been added:[2][3]
Article XX. Presidential Election
Section 1. Presidential Election Winner
It is the expressed will of the People that every vote for President be valued equally and that the candidate who wins the most votes nationally becomes President. Therefore, the General Assembly shall within sixty days of the adoption of this amendment take all necessary legislative action so that the winner of the national popular vote is elected President.[4]
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Ohio, the number of signatures required to get an initiated constitutional amendment placed on the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Ohio also requires initiative sponsors to submit 1,000 signatures with the initial petition application. Ohio has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures be gathered from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Petitioners must gather signatures equal to a minimum of half the total required percentage of the gubernatorial vote in each of the 44 counties. Petitions are allowed to circulate for an indefinite period of time. Signatures are due 125 days prior to the general election that proponents want the initiative on.
The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2019 ballot:
- Signatures: 443,958 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit the signatures was July 3, 2019.
County boards of elections are responsible for verifying signatures, and the secretary of state must determine the sufficiency of the signature petition at least 105 days before the election. If the first batch of signatures is determined to be insufficient, the petitioners are given a ten-day window to collect more signatures.
Details about this initiative
- Employees of FieldWorks LLC, a petition management company, submitted two versions of this initiative along with 2,475 signatures and 2,457 signatures, respectively, on March 21, 2019.[1]
- Both versions contained the same proposed changes to the state constitution but contained differently proposed summaries for the petition sheets.
- The attorney general needed to determine if 1,000 of the submitted signatures are valid and whether or not to clear the initiative for circulation by a deadline on April 1, 2019.[1]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ohio Attorney General, "List of petitions submitted to the Attorney General's Office," accessed March 21, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ohio Attorney General, "The Presidential Election Popular Vote Amendment Summary Petition version #1," accessed March 21, 2019
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ohio Attorney General, "The Presidential Election Popular Vote Amendment Summary Petition version #2," accessed March 21, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
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