On the second try, a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban was certified Tuesday by Attorney General Mike DeWine.
DeWine decided that the petition submitted last week by the Freedom To Marry Ohio coalition contained the requisite 1,000 valid signatures of Ohio registered voters and included a “fair and truthful” summary of the proposed amendment.
The attorney general rejected the group’s first petition, citing three flaws in the language.
The amendment would modify the Ohio Constitution to define marriage as “a union of two consenting adults, regardless of gender.” That is contrary to a 2004 amendment approved by voters statewide that declared marriage to be between one man and one woman. The new proposal also would empower churches to refuse to perform or honor a same-sex marriage.
The proposal now goes to the Ohio Ballot Board to determine whether the proposal should appear as a single issue or multiple amendments on the ballot.
After that, the Freedom To Marry coalition must gather 385,253 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters — 10 percent of the vote in the 2010 gubernatorial election — to put the amendment to a statewide vote in 2013.
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