COLUMBUS, OH — Local strippers have organized and formed the group Dancers For Democracy in order to repeal a new state law concerning how they can conduct business in the clubs where they work. The new law is scheduled to take effect on September 4th.The new law will force clubs to close between midnight and 6:00am and prevent nudity after midnight in clubs that have liquor licenses that are allowed to be open after midnight. It will also prohibit physical contact of any kind between patrons and nude or semi-nude strippers.

Dancers for Democracy has collected more than 200,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot in the fall, according to their spokeswoman, Sandy Theis. The group says it is now averaging an additional 5,000 signatures daily. The dancers need to collect 241,366 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters by September 3rd to place the issue before voters on November 6th.

Strippers told registered voters interested in the petition that the new state regulations are so extreme that “if you touch a stripper, even on the elbow, you and the stripper could go to jail for 30 days.”

Six strip club dancers from Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland volunteered for this week’s petition duty. Separately, Theis said her group is also paying more than 1,000 professional circulators $1 per signature.

Dancers for Democracy spent $120,000 on its first round of signature-gathering, but fired 10 petitioners who were not complying with election law, Theis said. They hope to get double the amount of signatures required, in case some are ruled invalid.

New restrictions on strip clubs and other sexually-oriented businesses were sought by Citizens for Community Values (CCV) in Sharonville, which successfully petitioned the Ohio General Assembly and got the ball rolling.

CCV president, Phil Burress, disputed the strippers’ claims to the local media.

“What makes them think that they’re going to get arrested for touching somebody’s elbow?” he said.

Burress pointed out that even under the new law, strip clubs can continue to operate 18 hours a day. “What the other side is doing is pushing these girls out front with these (economic) sob stories.”

CCV is also airing radio spots explaining what the law will do, from its point of view.

Dancers For Democracy says that the economic harm is real, however and even two senators who had voted for the restrictions have signed the Dancers’ petition.

Democrat Eric Kearney or North Avondale and Republican Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington both agreed that everyone has a right to see the issue go to ballot.