Ohio opponents throw hail mary pass
September 12, 2008 | Bill Faith, Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH CRL, Ohio, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (2)This time they are trying to get the referendum thrown off the ballot through a legal manuever involving the signature gathering process. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer story:
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she will appoint a hearing officer to decide whether consultants hired to collect signatures to get the payday lending measure on the ballot properly filed the petitions with her office.
If they did not, Brunner could invalidate the signatures and strip the referendum from the ballot. Her decision is expected by Sept. 25.
The referendum seeks to repeal a law capping interest payday lenders can charge on loans at 28 percent and revert to previous practice, which allowed the lenders to charge rates and fees that amount to a 391 annual percentage rate.
ackers of the new law, the Vote Yes on Issue 5 Committee, said some consultants hired by Ohioans for Financial Freedom — the payday lenders — to collect signatures did not file a necessary form.
Anyone supervising the collection of signatures must file a Form 15, which asks for the circulators’ names and addresses and the names of their employers before they can start collecting signatures.
The secretary’s office said it cannot find any evidence that a Form 15 was filed by Arno Political Consultants, a California firm hired by the lenders to collect many of its signatures.
“One of the penalties if you don’t file the Form 15 is a misdemeanor, but separately, you could get thrown entirely off the ballot,” said Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for the Vote Yes on Issue 5 Committee. The group had filed a public records request asking to see the form.
The group asked Brunner “to throw them off the ballot, and if you can’t do that, then at least throw out the signatures collected by this group,” Theis said.
Brunner instead appointed a hearing officer who will hear from both sides before making a recommendation to Brunner.
The anti-payday lending crowd has given up on trying to persuade Ohio voters.
Update: Here’s the Dayton Daily News story
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Pundit: Should we be worried about this?
Chris: I’m told that everything was done correctly. But, don’t let that stop you from worrying. Anything can happen.