Investigation opened on marijuana petition drive

Ohio’s secretary of state, troubled by what he called “suspicious and possibly fraudulent” activity, named a special investigator Wednesday to examine ResponsibleOhio’s petition drive to put its plan to legalize marijuana on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The announcement from Secretary of State Jon Husted came as the private-investor group was pushing toward Thursday’s last-chance deadline to collect enough signatures of registered Ohio voters to qualify its proposed constitutional amendment for voters to consider this fall.

Husted announced that former Allen County Prosecutor David Bowers of Lima would lead the investigation into ResponsibleOhio’s signature-gathering and voter-registration efforts. Husted also said he intends to subpoena Ian James, ResponsibleOhio’s executive director, and “any relevant records” from the group and James’ company, The Strategy Network.

“As with every possible case of election fraud, it is my responsibility to investigate and hold accountable anyone who may have cheapened the voice of all Ohioans by cheating the system,” a statement from Husted said. “Voter fraud is rare, but it happens; and when it does, we will call out the guilty parties and hold them accountable.”

ResponsibleOhio’s lawyers fired back, saying Husted was trying to silence the organization.

Legal counsel Larry James said, “No good deed goes unpunished. We found discrepancies between the number of petitions we turned in and the number the county boards of elections reported that we turned in. We brought these very discrepancies to Secretary Husted, and now he’s trying to punish us for pointing them out publicly. In doing so, we were merely exercising our First Amendment right to raise legitimate challenges and concerns.”

Andy Douglas, former Ohio Supreme Court justice and now legal counsel for ResponsibleOhio, added: “Secretary Husted has slapped us with a subpoena meant to silence us and chill any future opposition. He even deputized a former prosecutor to investigate us, then bragged about his past success gaining convictions, all in a further attempt to frighten, harass and silence us.

“The good news is, we’re going to get to the bottom of this. We will not be silenced and, ultimately, it is Secretary Husted who will have to answer for his actions, and those of the county boards of election, in a court of law.”

ResponsibleOhio is seeking to put on November’s ballot its Marijuana Legalization Amendment, which would amend the state constitution to allow the cultivation, production and sale of marijuana. The most controversial aspect of the plan would have the commercial crop limited to 10 farms around the state. Three farms would be in Hamilton, Butler and Clermont counties.

To make the ballot, ResponsibleOhio must collect 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters. On June 30, ResponsibleOhio turned in 695,273 signatures.

But on July 20, Husted said the state’s 88 county boards of elections calculated the total number of signatures at 660,190, a difference of 35,083. Husted said that of that lower number, 276,082 signatures qualified as valid. ResponsibleOhio then was allowed 10 additional days to collect 29,509 more valid signatures. The deadline to turn in those extra signatures is Thursday.

While he would not predict a final tally for the supplemental 10-day collection period, James said ResponsibleOhio will turn in “tens of thousands” more signatures by midnight Thursday.

Last week, James said his organization’s state-of-the-art operation produced an accurate count, and the boards of elections undercounted the signatures. He pledged to take Husted to court over the handling of the petitions.

“We have a highly sophisticated, highly accurate system,” he said, “and we’re going to challenge the process because it’s not only our rights, it’s the right thing to do, to make sure that all the voters have their signatures count.”

Before Wednesday’s announcement of Bowers as a special investigator, Husted had warned ResponsibleOhio about potential fraud. On June 17, Husted cautioned the 88 county boards of elections about new voter registrations from The Strategy Network due to “an increase in errors and apparent fraudulent registration attempts.”

Among the problems Husted reported were voter registrations at nonexistent addresses, illegible signatures on petitions or ones that do not match signatures on file, multiple applications submitted on the same day for a single applicant at different addresses, applicants who are under age, and multiple registration forms that appear to be completed by the same person.

Bowers, the newly named special investigator, served for 28 years as the elected prosecutor in Allen County, the longest tenure in that job in Ohio. He directed calls for comment Wednesday to the secretary of state’s office.