How to Put An Issue on the Ohio Ballot through a Citizen-Initiated Statute

Create a committee of three to five individuals who will be responsible for representing all petitioners in matters related to the petition.
Draft the initial petition, which includes the following: the title of the proposed law, the full text of the proposed law, and a fair and truthful summary of the proposed law.

Gather 1,000 signatures of registered voters who back the proposed law.
Submit the petition–which includes the title, full text, and summary of the proposed law, along with the signatures–to the Attorney General.

Once the Attorney General has certified the petition, you can prepare petitions for each county and begin collecting signatures.
Make sure you’re adhering closely to guidelines regarding number of signatures required (both total and by county): the total number of signatures must equal 3% of votes cast in the last Governor’s election; you need a minimum of 1.5% of votes cast in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties in the last Governor’s election. (In other words, you can’t collect all the signatures from a handful of counties.)
Plan to exceed the minimum number of signatures required in case any are deemed invalid. A rule of thumb: aim for 50% more signatures than the minimum needed.
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK
If any person compensates another person OR receives compensation for organizing the petition, they must file a Form 15 with the Secretary of State BEFORE circulating petitions. If this paperwork isn’t submitted on time, the entire petition can be invalidated.

Submit all petitions (physical and digital) at one time to the Secretary of State no less than 10 days prior to the commencement of any Ohio General Assembly session.
TIP
File well in advance of the deadline to give election officials more time to verify the petition before the legislative session starts.

If the Secretary of State determines that the petition has a sufficient number of valid signatures, the Secretary will transmit the proposed law to the General Assembly on its first day of session.
The General Assembly has four months to review the proposal and consider enacting it as proposed or in a modified form. Lawmakers may also take no action at all.
During this period, encourage lawmakers to hold hearings and pass the proposal.
While waiting for lawmakers to review the proposal, get organized by determining who will collect further signatures in each county (and how) if a second petition is necessary. (See Step 7.)

If lawmakers have not enacted the proposal by the end of their four-month review period, petitioners then have 90 days to circulate a second petition.
Like the first petition, the total number of signatures must equal 3% of votes cast in the last Governor’s election; you need a minimum of 1.5% of votes cast in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties in the last Governor’s election. (Important Note: signers of the first petition are ineligible to sign the second petition!)
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK
The timing for this second petition can be tricky. While the circulation window for this second petition is already tight at just 90 days, if the petitioners want to get their proposal on the upcoming November ballot, they will need to file the second petition by the 125th day before the election. That will typically be well before the end of the 90-day window. If petitioners file after the 125th day before the election – and if the petition is ultimately verified – the proposal will not appear on the ballot until the November election in the following year.

If the Secretary of State verifies the petition, the proposal will be certified for placement on the ballot.
Ballot language for the measure will be written by the Ohio Ballot Board.
Once the agreed-upon language is added to the ballot, watch democracy in action! Voters will decide the fate of the proposed law.
If the law is approved by a majority of voters, it will become effective 30 days after the election.
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS
The Ohio Ballot Board determines the ballot language for the proposed law, and it might not reflect the petitioners’ objectives. [CASE STUDY: How Ohio Issue 1, 2024 went down]
Whether lawmakers can amend or repeal an initiated statute after it has been approved by the voters remains an open legal question. Some lawmakers have claimed they are free to alter voter-approved measures, while others have argued the Ohio Constitution limits lawmakers’ power. The issue has not been resolved by Ohio’s courts, creating some uncertainty about the durability of initiated statutes.