Last year, in a party-line vote, Ohio legislators passed a law (H.B. 96, the budget bill) that effectively ended the right of referendum here in Worthington and in municipalities across Ohio. The referendum provision was embedded, easily overlooked, in the very large annual budget bill.

The legislators effectively ended the referendum for Ohio municipalities by more than tripling the number of signatures required to get an issue placed on the ballot.  This is not normal.

The right of voter initiatives, referendum, and charter amendments in Ohio were all established in 1912, as part of nationwide reforms of political systems that had been corrupted by the influence of concentrated wealth, internal graft, and monopolistic powers. These citizen rights have been foundational to good governance in Worthington for decades.

Whether or not voters ever feel it’s necessary to take an issue to referendum, the existence of this right helps to ensure that city governance is responsive to the will of the people. H.B. 96 placed the right of referendum so beyond the reach of the voters that it is de facto non-existent.

The signature requirements for major citizen-initiated legislative actions—ordinance initiatives, ordinance referendums, and charter amendments—have historically all had the same signature requirements to get on the ballot—10% of voters. And 50% plus one of votes is required to pass. This recent action at the Statehouse raised the signature requirement—only for referendums—to 35% of voters.  Just to get on the ballot.

The importance of the initiative and referendum for our local governance are so great that our City Charter places them at the very beginning of the document, in Article 1, Section 3 (https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/worthington/latest/worthington_oh/0-0-0-5663), right after the opening sections declaring our incorporation and affirming our rights of home-rule self-governance.  

This primacy of location in our City Charter was no accident.  The rights of initiative and referendum are foundational. They protect the ability of Worthington voters to have a direct say on big policy issues that impact the future of our community.

If these extreme requirements for a referendum are allowed to stand, the voice of the voters will shrink, and the power and influence of moneyed interests will grow.

Here in Worthington, we can do something about this.

Like all Ohio municipalities, Worthington has the power of “Home Rule.” This enables us to specify in our City Charter, superseding Statehouse legislation, the rules by which we conduct Worthington referendums.

In this spirit, Worthington community members have formed the Our City, Our Vote campaign in order to place a City Charter measure on the ballot this fall. The proposal is simple: restore Worthington’s decades-long 10% signature requirement for referendum (which is still the standard for initiatives and charter amendments).

The purpose and effect of our ballot issue is as direct as it is important.

We hope that after learning more, you will choose to support this effort. We will be adding additional information to this website in coming weeks and months as the campaign unfolds.  We expect and want robust engagement with the public.  We believe that an informed public is the foundation of a healthy political culture in Worthington.  So we invite your questions, comments, and direct participation in any and all of our campaign activities. We invite you to directly engage the campaign through the links above. 

By protecting the rights of Worthington voters, we will help ensure good governance in our community moving into our shared and extraordinary future. Together, we will be paying forward.

More broadly, we will be contributing to the much larger task of defending and celebrating the principles of self-governance in the 250th year of our nation’s founding.  What we do here matters.