Source: Hannah Report, January 10, 2022
A second effort to start the process on a proposed initiated statute that would bar vaccine mandates was rejected again on January 7, by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost — this time because it didn’t get the required 1,000 valid signatures needed to be considered.
The “Vaccine and Gene Therapy Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act,” a proposal to enact Section 3792.02 of the Ohio Revised Code, was first submitted to Attorney General Yost’s office more than a month ago, and would enact language similar to House Bill 248, which the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians strongly opposed. It would “prohibit a person, public official or employee, public agency, state agency, political subdivision, school, child day care center, nursing home, residential care facility, health care provider, insurer, institution, or employer from requiring any vaccine or gene therapy,”
Attorney General Yost rejected that submission, citing three defects in the group’s proposed summary of the initiated statute, including that it failed to define several operative terms in the proposal, assigned definitions to terms that differ from common usage, and failed to mention exemptions in the proposal.
The group resubmitted its proposal on December 29, 2021, but Attorney General Yost’s office said that because county boards found that the petition did not reach the minimum number of signatures to be considered, no determination was made about the new summary.
In a response letter, Attorney General Yost told the petitioners, “If you plan to submit a petition again, please review the statutory requirements for submitting petitions and part-petitions.”