Shelly & Sands, Inc. v. Franklin County Board of Elections

The standards for a valid zoning referendum petition have been established by this court in a number of cases. This court has held that the petition must contain an accurate and unambiguous summary of the issue sought to be submitted to the electorate. If the summary is misleading, inaccurate, or contains material omissions which would confuse the average person, the petition is invalid and may not form the basis for submission to a vote. Markus v. Bd. of Elections (1970), 22 Ohio St. 2d 197 [51 O.O.2d 277]. We hold that the petition here failed to live up to those standards.

*142Applying the…