State ex rel. Jones v. Husted

Summary

The Supreme Court of Ohio considered a mandamus action seeking restoration of petition signatures invalidated during review of an initiative proposal. The court granted the writ in part, ordered certification of specified additional signatures, rescinded the transmission of the initiative to the General Assembly, and directed acceptance and verification of supplementary petitions for potential placement on the November 2017 ballot.

Holdings

1. The relators' claims were not barred by res judicata, laches, waiver, the alternative-remedy argument, compulsory-counterclaim principles, or prospective-only application of Ohio Manufacturers’ Assn., because the claims were not ripe until the related signature challenge established the need for additional signatures.
2. The Secretary of State was required to certify 20,092 additional Cuyahoga County signatures because the part-petitions had been invalidated solely on the basis of signature deletions, subject to deducting ten signatures shown to have separate overcounting defects.
3. The Secretary of State was required to certify additional signatures from Adams, Darke, Hocking, Madison, Putnam, and Union Counties where the part-petitions were improperly invalidated because of signature deletions, while excluding petitions with separate overcounting or other defects.
4. The relators did not establish entitlement to additional Miami County signatures because the evidence was internally inconsistent and did not identify which part-petitions had been invalidated during the re-review.
5. The Secretary of State was required to honor Delaware County's initial certification of 324 valid signatures, subject to deducting ten signatures shown to be invalid, and therefore to certify 314 additional signatures.
6. The relators were not entitled to an order requiring validation of additional Sandusky County signatures because they failed to produce sufficient evidence that the identified part-petitions had been improperly invalidated.
7. Because the restored signatures caused the petition filing to exceed the minimum-signature threshold, the Secretary of State was required to rescind the September 6 transmission to the General Assembly, accept the supplementary part-petitions for verification, and place the initiative on the November 2017 general-election ballot if those petitions contained sufficient valid signatures.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the relators' mandamus claims were barred by ripeness, res judicata, laches, waiver, the availability of an alternative remedy, compulsory-counterclaim principles, or prospective-only application of the related Ohio Manufacturers’ Assn. decision.
2. Whether the Secretary of State was required to count Cuyahoga County part-petition signatures invalidated solely because signatures had been deleted or crossed out.
3. Whether the Secretary of State was required to count additional signatures from Adams, Darke, Hocking, Madison, Putnam, and Union Counties that county boards had invalidated based on signature deletions.
4. Whether Delaware County's initial certification of 324 valid signatures remained effective and required the Secretary to count those signatures, subject to documented defects.
5. Whether the relators established that Sandusky County improperly invalidated six part-petitions for circulator overcounts.
6. Whether the corrected signature totals exceeded the constitutional threshold and required the Secretary to rescind the transmission to the General Assembly, accept supplementary part-petitions for verification, and place the initiative on the ballot if sufficient.

Disposition

other