COLUMBUS, OH —Franklin County Judge Timothy S. Horton has denied a request for a temporary restraining order preventing Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner from enforcing the existing deadline for the filing of signatures in support of a ballot initiative overturning a new law that restricts the operating hours of adult businesses and limits the physical contact between strippers and their customers. Brunner has indicated that the deadline for Citizens For Community Standards to get more signatures in was tomorrow, 10 business days after her office mailed a letter informing the group that its petitions were deficient. CCS believes that the letter should go into effect upon receipt, two days later — a move which would give the group needed time.
The board of elections determined that two of every three signatures obtained to get on the ballot were invalid. The CCS needed more than 241,000 signatures, but only managed to produce a little more than 125,000 signatures. The judge, however, will hold a hearing on a possible preliminary injunction soon.
“I’m no handwriting expert, but it was perfectly clear to me that there were petitions in which every single signature came from the same person,” said John Borell, assistant county prosecutor to the local media.
Residents of the state receiving absentee ballots will have the opportunity to vote on the initiative but those votes may never be counted if the strip clubs can not get enough signatures together in time.
