State ex rel. Coover v. Husted (Slip Opinion), 148 Ohio St. 3d 332

Relators (committee members) submitted proposed county-charter petitions for Athens, Meigs, and Portage Counties under Article X, Section 3 and R.C. 307.94.
Each county board of elections found sufficient signatures but unanimously rejected the petitions as substantively invalid.
Relators timely protested to Secretary of State Husted; he denied all three protests and instructed boards not to place charters on the November 8, 2016 ballot.
Relators filed an expedited mandamus action asking the court to compel respondents to place the proposed charters on the ballot.
The petitions used identical broad language stating the county is responsible for exercising all powers and duties vested by general law and defaulting to the Ohio Constitution or general law when the charter is silent.
The boards and secretary concluded that the charters failed to (a) set forth the form of government sufficiently and (b) enumerate "all powers and duties" required by Article X, Section 3; relators argued this pre‑election substantive review violated constitutional rights and that the charters were sufficient.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether election officials may perform pre‑election review of charter content	Review is a First Amendment and local‑self‑government violation; Walker should be overruled	Officials may determine whether a petition meets Article X, §3 threshold requirements	Pre‑election review to test threshold Article X, §3 requirements is permitted (Walker controls)
Whether the charters sufficiently provide for the exercise of "all powers" and performance of "all duties"	Broad catch‑all language and references to statutory law satisfy the constitutional requirement	Language is too vague; fails to individually delineate powers/duties, forcing reliance on external sources	Petition language is insufficient; officials reasonably found the charters failed Article X, §3
Whether referencing R.C. Chapter 302 (alternative executive forms) salvages the petitions	Relators: charters set form of government by referencing portions of the Revised Code	Secretary/boards: petitions did not provide for an elective or appointive county executive as required under R.C. 302.02 when interpreted as invoking Chapter 302	Court did not adopt a finding that Chapter 302 cured defects; it upheld officials’ determination the petitions lacked required information under Article X, §3

State ex rel. Walker v. Husted, 144 Ohio St.3d 361 (2015) (election officials may determine whether a charter initiative meets threshold constitutional requirements)
State ex rel. Choices for South‑Western City Schools v. Anthony, 108 Ohio St.3d 1 (2005) (boards may refuse to place measures on the ballot that exceed the authorized scope for a ballot initiative)