Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced on Monday pro-marijuana advocates ResponsibleOhio has failed to gather the necessary amount of signatures to place a pot legalization amendment on the ballot this fall.

Petitioners were required to submit at least 305,591 valid signatures for the organization’s “Marijuana Legalization Amendment” - a number equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in 2014. The organization gathered only 276,082 valid signatures statewide, falling short 29,509.

However, Secretary Husted says ResponsibleOhio will now be given 10 more days to gain the additional signatures. Those must be submitted to the Husted’s office no later than July 30.

“Our team has done an excellent job of collecting signatures from voters across the state who want the chance to repeal failed marijuana prohibition this fall. Over the next 10 days, our team of over 200 staffers will be working diligently to collect the remaining 29,509 signatures we need to qualify for the November 2015 ballot," said ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James.

The organization also says there is a "significant discrepancy" between the number of signatures submitted and the total counted by Boards of Elections in several counties and will take the issue to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Meantime, the political action committee did clear another hurdle in gaining signatures in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Related Items