COLUMBUS, Ohio - The fate of Senate Bill 5, Ohio's new collective bargaining law, will be in the hands of Ohio voters on Nov. 8, the state's elections chief announced on Thursday.

The group leading the repeal effort submitted 915,456 valid signatures to put the law on the November ballot, according to Secretary of State Jon Husted. Only 231,147 valid signatures were required.

The verified petition signatures for the SB 5 referendum are the most on record in recent history for an Ohio ballot issue.

Union leaders gathered in downtown Columbus Thursday morning -- before Husted announced his certification of the signatures -- to strategize and highlight the stakes of the referendum.

"This is really a historic moment for us. We're kicking off a campaign for social rights and justice," National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. "This is about defending the middle class. This is about saying what kind of state we will be and what kind of nation we will be."

Trumka would not say how much money the national AFL-CIO office would contribute to the law's repeal. But the labor leaders at Thursday's roundtable made it clear they expect the law's supporters to spend a lot of money to uphold SB 5, which reduces the collective bargaining power of about 360,000 public workers in Ohio. The law also would increase health care costs for some workers and put an emphasis on job performance as opposed to seniority.

"We're headed into a very bad campaign," said Pierrette "Petee" Talley, secretary-treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO. "We're up against interests that have a lot of money."

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed a majority of Ohio voters surveyed -- 56 percent -- think SB 5 should be overturned. The poll showed 32 percent think it should be kept.

Supporters of SB 5, however, pointed out that the poll showed voters strongly support key aspects of the law, including requirements that public workers pay at least 15 percent of health insurance premiums and contribute at least 10 percent of their wages toward their pensions.

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Republican Gov. John Kasich and members of the GOP-controlled legislature who passed the law argue it is needed to help local governments control costs, especially in a down economy. Kasich signed the law in late March. It will not take effect unless voters uphold it this fall.

"We have to make some tough decisions about how to provide public services while respecting the ability of taxpayers to fund them," Sen. Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro who introduced SB 5, said in a statement released by the pro-SB 5 group Building a Better Ohio.

Now that Husted, a Republican, has certified the signatures, the Ohio Ballot Board must approve of the specific wording that will appear before voters on the fall ballot. The board is expected to meet in early August.

On top of submitting nearly four times the required number of verified signatures of registered voters, the anti-SB 5 group We Are Ohio far exceeded another requirement to put the law on the ballot.

In at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties, the signatures must represent at least 3 percent of the total votes cast in last year's gubernatorial election in those counties.

We Are Ohio met the requirement in all 88 counties.