Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced on January 4th 2008 that the Ohioans for Healthy Families Coalition has submitted more than enough valid signatures to send the Ohio Healthy Families Act to the Ohio General Assembly!
The Coalition needed 120,683 valid signatures state-wide, and specific numbers of signatures had to be gathered in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. On December 11th, petitions were submitted to Jennifer Brunner, the state’s chief elections officer, who then sent them to County Boards of Elections for verification. Today, Brunner certified 154,693 signatures as valid, and said that the requisite number of signatures were obtained in 65 counties, both of which far exceeded the numbers needed to send the proposed legislation to the General Assembly. We expect Secretary of State to send the OHFA to the statehouse in a matter of days.
Congratulations to our 190+ member coalition and the millions of Ohioans who support Paid Sick Days! None of this could have happened without your help and support.
We are excited about the success of the signature gathering, but an even tougher challenge awaits as we pressure the Legislature to pass and enact this standard. For the Ohio Healthy Families Act to pass there, we need to make sure Ohio Legislators - who already have taxpayer funded paid sick days themselves to take care of their own families - receive a loud and clear message that Ohioans deserve paid sick days too!
Posted by SickDaysOhio.org on January 5, 2008
