Marijuana, Voters Bill of Rights to miss Nov. ballot

COLUMBUS --Efforts to place voting rights and medical marijuana amendments before Ohio voters lack enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, supporters said Tuesday, vowing to target a later election.

To put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot, activists needed to gather more than 385,000 signatures by Wednesday. A medical marijuana group and voting rights activists each had gathered about 100,000 signatures, lacking the money to pay signature gatherers to boost that total.

Petitions can carry over from election to election, so supporters from both groups can continue to circulate them to try to gather enough support to put their amendments on a future ballot.

Some had pointed to the Voters Bill of Rights as a mechanism to increase turnout among African-American voters in a gubernatorial election year, when Ohio's Democrats are usually less reliable voters than Republicans. Activists had been aiming to get the issue in front of voters in November, citing a need to fight back swiftly against new GOP-sponsored laws that Democrats say unfairly restrict ballot access.

Still, the voting rights amendment could combine with other ballot initiatives -- such as an attempt to legalize gay marriage and a push against a possible right-to-work amendment -- to create a turnout bonanza in 2015 or 2016.

"Our main message now is 'circulate and collect.' And then we'll be able to sit down and figure out which election is next, looking at what else is going to be on the ballot," said state Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Bond Hill, who has led the coalition behind the Voters Bill of Rights. "Our goal is, 'We plan for '15 so we're prepared, we have the signatures.' "

The Voters Bill of Rights would preserve a 35-day early voting period, specify extended hours for early voting, allow a voter to cast a provisional ballot anywhere in the correct county and move toward online voter registration. Many of the provisions are a reaction to GOP-sponsored bills that may make voting more difficult for some – in exchange for added security, fairness and efficiency, Republicans say. Gov. John Kasich has signed the measures into law.

Reece's group plans to continue to train volunteers this summer and fall to gather signatures at festivals, along with barbershops and beauty parlors.

That sort of grass-roots campaign may still boost Democratic candidates this fall, as activists rally voters around their cause, said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, a coalition of liberal policy activists.

"It just becomes part of the door-to-door effort," Rothenberg said. "The correlation between door-to-door, old-fashioned door knocks and voter turnout is always high."

A spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party said the Voters Bill of Rights has always been a political tool for Democrats.

"This is not only a policy priority for them; it's a political priority for them that they want to do to get their voters out," spokesman Chris Schrimpf said.

Since Ohio Democrats struggle with voter turnout in nonpresidential years, a 2015 ballot initiative could be a challenge. Still, Reece suggested Democrats have a strong motivation to try anyway: If the amendment were to pass in 2015, it would be in effect for the all-important 2016 presidential contest.

"It's very important that we get this straightened out as soon as possible because it affects the next elections," she said.

November 2015 is also the new target election for the Ohio Rights Group, the medical marijuana coalition with the most momentum.

But the Democratic officials leading the Voters Bill of Rights campaign are unlikely to cooperate with the medical marijuana activists. Eighty-seven percent of Ohio voters believe medical marijuana use under the care of a doctor should be legal, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this winter. Nevertheless, politicians in both parties have largely avoided endorsing medical marijuana.