Ohio Christian Alliance and Concerned Citizens of Medina City Call for Ohio Secretary of State to Conduct Audit of Petitions Filed for Referendum on Medina City Ordinance 112-19

Today the Ohio Christian Alliance calls on the Ohio Secretary of State to conduct an independent audit of the Referendum Petition on Ordinance 112-19 which was passed by Medina City Council on July 8, on which a citizen referendum petition was filed on July 31, 2019.

After citizens collected nearly 1,200 signatures in just 14 days, the referendum petition went to the Medina County Board of Elections for review. The Medina BOE report indicated that there were 939 good signatures, 44 short of what was needed after they had invalided 260 petition signatures. The Ohio Christian Alliance with its attorneys obtained a public records request from the Medina County Board of Elections. Upon reviewing the records, it was discovered that 59 signatures disqualified by the Board of Elections for what the Board termed “non-matching signature” were actually those of registered voters in the City of Medina who should not have had their signatures invalidated from the petition.

“Basically, it was a judgement call by the Board of Elections officials,” stated OCA President Chris Long. “Through advisement from our legal counsel we began to obtain sworn affidavits from those residents whose signatures were wrongly invalidated. Volunteers, with their notary assistants, secured forty-seven sworn affidavits from citizens who were more than eager to attest that it indeed was their signature on the petition, and that they wanted the referendum placed on the ballot for the people to decide.”

On November 18, Concerned Citizens of Medina City filed a protest appeal. Now, fifteen days later, Medina County Board of Elections officials have done nothing with the evidence that was presented to them from registered voters in the City of Medina whose signatures were wrongly invalidated. These voters are having their rights violated, and that is why we call upon the Secretary of State, who is the chief elections officer of the State, to review these petitions in light of the additional evidence we have presented. It is also believed that a conflict of interest exists with Board of Elections officials, and for that reason also we ask the Secretary of State to conduct an independent audit. We hope to have this issue quickly resolved and are confident that there are enough petition signatures to place the measure on the ballot for November of 2020. The people deserve to have their voice heard at the ballot box.

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