Smoking-ban backers to ask top court to keep issue on ballot

Publication Date: 2006-09-15

• Author:William Hershey
• Publication:Dayton Daily News

SmokeFreeOhio trying to get appellate ruling overturned to keep the issue before voters on Nov. 7.

Backers of a proposal to ban smoking in workplaces and most enclosed public spaces plan to go to the Ohio Supreme Court today in an effort to keep the issue before voters on Nov. 7.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's office certified the issue for the ballot earlier this month, but that was before a state appeals court this week ruled against SmokeFreeOhio, the group backing the issue...

Also, on Thursday, SmokeFreeOhio filed a protest with the secretary of state, charging that some persons circulating petitions for Smoke Less Ohio did not correctly list their employers, invalidating signatures they gathered. Evans of Smoke Less Ohio, denied this.

The SmokeFreeOhio plan is a proposed state law, while the Smoke Less Ohio proposal is a constitutional amendment. If voters approved both, the less restrictive constitutional amendment would prevail. The amendment also would override smoking bans enacted in 21 cities.