Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2015
Source: Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Copyright: 2015 Associated press
Contact:  http://www.morningjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3569
Author: Julie Carr Smyth, Associated press

ELECTIONS CHIEF FLAGS VOTER FORMS FROM MARIJUANA GROUP

COLUMBUS (AP) - Voter registrations collected by a marijuana 
legalization campaign are to be closely scrutinized for potential 
fraud under orders the state's elections chief delivered Wednesday.

Secretary of State Jon Husted advised the state's 88 county election 
boards to carefully analyze new voter registrations submitted by The 
Strategy Network, the organization coordinating a signature drive for 
ResponsibleOhio's marijuana legalization campaign.

Husted's advisory said the heightened caution related to reports from 
some election boards that submissions by the group contained higher 
error rates and apparent fraudulent registration attempts. He cited 
non-existent addresses, illegible signatures, duplicate applications 
from the same address and underage registrants.

"Disregard for Ohio's laws and Ohio's citizens will not be 
tolerated," Husted said in a release. "Sloppiness and fraud are 
unwelcome in our state's elections system."

ResponsibleOhio director Ian James said the group has followed the law.

"We met with the secretary of state's office some weeks ago and went 
over the process of voter registration, what we were doing, the 
procedures we were using, and there was no indication of any problems 
whatsoever," James said.

"So we're somewhat flummoxed today by this announcement of some 
issue, when in fact we were fully compliant with Ohio election laws 
on voter registration."

Husted, a Republican, said the warning was part of his responsibility 
in assuring fair and safe elections.

ResponsibleOhio is gathering the roughly 306,000 signatures required 
to qualify a proposed constitutional amendment for the fall ballot. 
It says it has more than 550,000

Its proposal would legalize medical and recreational marijuana and 
set up a statewide network of growing locations - including one in 
Lorain - some of which have already been bought by investors.

State lawmakers are rushing to place on the ballot an amendment that 
would prohibit people or groups from creating monopolies or advancing 
their economic special interests in the Ohio Constitution, an effort 
aimed to blocking the marijuana proposal. If the two are deemed to be 
in direct conflict, the one with more votes would prevail.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom