Ohio AG rejects anti-vaccine mandate petition effort again

On Jan 7, 2022

Protestors line the west side of 3rd Street in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio on August 24, 2021. People were gathered to protest a number of topics associated with HB 248, referring to the Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act that would be voted on that day.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected a ballot petition to ban vaccine passports and vaccine mandates for the second time Friday.

While the first rejection was due to unclear language of the proposal, this second rejection was because of invalid petitions.

“My office has now received reports from county boards of elections that your submission did not contain the verified signatures of at least one thousand qualified electors on valid part petitions,” Yost said in the rejection letter. “Boards of elections found deficiencies that invalidated the petition and part petitions in their entirety.”

A question to the attorney general’s office on what the deficiencies exactly were was not immediately returned.

With Yost’s refusal, the group can try again a third time to resubmit the petition. Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom did not immediately respond to a question about whether they would try again.

Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom have unsuccessfully lobbied for House Bill 248, which would prohibit virtually all vaccine mandates. GOP leaders in the state legislature have put a halt on that.

“We just have to keep building the pressure, like we’ve been doing,” said Stephanie Stock, who leads the group, in an interview. “We’re going to go this route because guess what? The people want this legislation.”

Lawmakers instead are focusing on House Bill 218, which still allows for COVID-19 vaccine mandates but grants exemptions. Stock and her group have opposed that legislation for coming far short of what they want.

The petition, like HB 248, bans mandates from anybody for all vaccines, not just COVID-19. But it does make exceptions for immunizations required for school entry under current Ohio law, though parents would need to be notified of any possible exemptions.

It prohibits sharing or recording any vaccination status except for school entry requirements and purposes of medical care or insurance. Ohioans being treated differently based on vaccination status would not be allowed, including incentives for those who are vaccinated.

If the attorney general and Ohio Ballot Board determines the measure can move forward, they need to collect roughly 132,000 signatures to send it to the Legislature for action.

If lawmakers don’t pass their proposal within four months, petitioners can gather signatures and put it on the ballot for voters to decide in the next general election.

Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.