(A) The privilege of local option conferred by section 4301.324 of the Revised Code may be exercised if, not later than four p.m. of the ninetieth day before the day of a general or primary election, a petition and other information required by division (B) of this section are presented to the board of elections of the county in which the community facility named in the petition is located. The petition shall be signed by electors of the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of the township in which the community facility is located equal in number to at least ten per cent of the total number of votes cast in the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of the township in which the community facility is located for the office of governor at the most recent general election for that office and shall contain both of the following:

(1) A notice that the petition is for the submission of the question set forth in section 4301.356 of the Revised Code and a statement indicating whether the hours of Sunday sales sought in the local option election are between ten a.m. and midnight or between eleven a.m. and midnight;

(2) The name and address of the community facility for which the local option election is sought and, if the community facility is a community entertainment district, the boundaries of the district.

(B) Upon the request of a petitioner, a board of elections of a county shall furnish to the petitioner a copy of the instructions prepared by the secretary of state under division (P) of section 3501.05 of the Revised Code and, within fifteen days after the request, a certificate indicating the number of valid signatures that will be required on a petition to hold an election in the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of the township in which the community facility is located on the question specified in section 4301.356 of the Revised Code.

The petitioner shall, not less than thirty days before the petition-filing deadline for an election on the question specified in section 4301.356 of the Revised Code, specify to the division of liquor control the name and address of the community facility for which the election is sought and, if the community facility is a community entertainment district, the boundaries of the district, the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of a township in which the election is sought, and the filing deadline. The division shall, within a reasonable period of time and not later than ten days before the filing deadline, supply the petitioner with the name and address of any permit holder for or within the community facility.

The petitioner shall file the name and address of any permit holder who would be affected by the election at the time the petitioner files the petition with the board of elections. Within five days after receiving the petition, the board shall give notice by certified mail to any permit holder within the community facility that it has received the petition. Failure of the petitioner to supply the name and address of any permit holder for or within the community facility as furnished to the petitioner by the division invalidates the petition.

(C) Not later than the seventy-eighth day before the day of the next general or primary election, whichever occurs first, the board shall examine and determine the sufficiency of the signatures on the petition. If the board finds that the petition is valid, it shall order the holding of an election in the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of a township on the day of the next general or primary election, whichever occurs first, for the submission of the question set forth in section 4301.356 of the Revised Code.

(D) A petition filed with a board of elections under this section shall be open to public inspection under rules adopted by the board.

(E) An elector who is eligible to vote on the question set forth in section 4301.356 of the Revised Code or any permit holder for or within the community facility may, not later than four p.m. of the seventy-fourth day before the day of the election at which the question will be submitted to the electors, file a written protest against the local option petition with the board of elections with which the petition was filed. Upon the filing of the protest, the board shall promptly fix a time and place for hearing the protest and shall mail notice of the time and place to the person who filed the petition and to the person who filed the protest. At the time and place fixed, the board shall hear the protest and determine the validity of the petition.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.29, HB 48, §1, eff. 7/2/2010.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.9, HB 1, §101.01, eff. 10/16/2009.

Effective Date: 09-29-1999; 05-02-2006