Ohio Rev. Code » Chapter 3513 - Ohio Revised Code | Ohio Laws
Ohio Revised Code

Ohio Rev. Code § 3513.263 (2026)

Processing nominating petitions

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ORCcodes.ohio.gov (official) Justiaon Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
Effective:
June 16, 2026
Latest Legislation:
Senate Bill 63 - 136th General Assembly
PDF:
Download Authenticated PDF
 

The nominating petitions of all candidates required to be filed before four p.m. of the ninetieth day before the day of the general election, shall be processed as follows:

If such petition is filed with the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall promptly transmit to each board such separate petition papers as purports to contain signatures of electors of the county of such board.

If such petition is filed with the board of a county in which the major portion of the population of a subdivision is located, such board shall promptly transmit to the board of each county in which other portions of such subdivision are located such separate petition papers of the petition as purport to contain signatures of electors of such county.

All petition papers so transmitted to a board of elections, and all nominating petitions filed with a board of elections are public records subject to disclosure under section 149.43 of the Revised Code. Upon receiving a public records request for petition papers and petitions accompanying declarations of candidacy, the board shall, as soon as practicable, make available for public inspection, or provide copies of, the petition papers and petitions, in electronic or paper form as specified by the requester, whether or not the petitions have been modified or marked upon or the petition's signatures have been certified as valid by the board. Each board shall, not later than the seventy-eighth day before the day of such general election examine and determine the sufficiency of the signatures on the petition papers transmitted to or filed with it and the validity or invalidity of petitions filed with it, and shall return to each other board all petition papers transmitted to it by such other board, together with its certification of its determination as to the validity or invalidity of signatures thereon. A signature on a nominating petition is not valid if it is dated more than one year before the date the nominating petition was filed. All other matters affecting the validity or invalidity of such petition papers shall be determined by the board with whom such petition papers were filed.

Written protests against such nominating petitions may be filed by any qualified elector eligible to vote for the candidate whose nominating petition the elector objects to, not later than the seventy-fourth day before the general election. Such protests shall be filed with the election officials with whom the nominating petition was filed. Upon the filing of such protests, the election officials with whom it is filed shall promptly fix the time and place for hearing it, and shall forthwith mail notice of the filing of such protest and the time and place for hearing it to the person whose nomination is protested. They shall also forthwith mail notice of the time and place fixed for the hearing to the person who filed the protest. At the time and place fixed, such election officials shall hear the protest and determine the validity or invalidity of the petition. Such determination shall be final.

Last updated March 31, 2026 at 3:39 PM

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 23 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1955–2024 · leading case: Nader v. Blackwell, 545 F.3d 459 (6th Cir. 2008).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Nader v. Blackwell, 545 F.3d 459 (6th Cir. 2008). · cites it 6× “See Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 3513.263 (West 2004).”
State ex rel. Phillips v. Lorain Cnty. Bd. of Elections, 757 N.E.2d 319 (Ohio 2001). · cites it 3× “Phillips, an attorney who is an elector of Avon, filed a written protest pursuant to R.C. 3513.263 with respondent, Lorain County Board of Elections, against Wearsch’s petition.”
Blankenship v. Blackwell, 103 Ohio St. 3d 567 (Ohio 2004). · cites it 2× “{¶ 4} Pursuant to R.C. 3513.263, the Secretary of State transmitted relators’ petition papers to the appropriate county boards of elections to examine and determine the sufficiency of the signatures and the validity of the petition papers.”
State ex rel. West v. LaRose (Slip Opinion), 2020 Ohio 4380 (Ohio 2020). · cites it 2× “Goldfarb, who had filed a protest against West and Tidball’s nominating petition with the secretary of state under R.C. 3513.263, filed a motion to intervene as a respondent, which this court granted.”
Libertarian Party of Ohio v. Husted, 2017 Ohio 7737 (Ohio Ct. App. 2017). · cites it 2× “(b) Written protests against the petition may be filed in the manner specified under section 3513.263 of the Revised Code not later than the one hundredth day before the general election and shall be resolved as specified in that section.”
State ex rel. Rust v. Lucas Cnty. Bord of Elections, 797 N.E.2d 1254 (Ohio 2003). · cites it 2× “The board of elections also contends that this court lacks jurisdiction over Rust’s mandamus *215 cl aim because he failed to file a timely protest under R.C. 3513.263. These initial assertions are meritless.”
State ex rel. Crowl v. Delaware Cty. Bd. of Elections (Slip Opinion), 2015 Ohio 4097 (Ohio 2015). · cites it 3× “However, the Revised Code does not appear to contain a comparable provision for a candidate to challenge the disqualification of the petition; certainly the parties have not pointed us to any provision.”
State ex rel. Heffelfinger v. Brunner, 116 Ohio St. 3d 172 (Ohio 2007). “2d 319 (“The purpose, however, of the timing requirements of R.C. 3513.263 is to have election officials act promptly; they are not designed to render invalid an otherwise valid petition nor to give validity to an invalid petition when not acted upon within the proper time”);…”
State ex rel. Carr v. Cuyahoga Cnty. Bd. of Elections, 586 N.E.2d 73 (Ohio 1992). · cites it 3× “Carr first argues that both protests were untimely filed under R.C. 3513.263, 1 that the second protest was not filed by a qualified elector eligible to vote for the candidate, as required by R.”
Duncan v. Husted, 125 F. Supp. 3d 674 (S.D. Ohio 2015). · cites it 4× “” O.R.C. § 3513.263. Under Section 263, county boards of election have until the seventy-eighth day before the general election to determine the sufficiency of nominating petitions, including the validity of the signatures.”
State ex rel. Phillips v. Lorain Cty. Bd. of Elections, 2001 Ohio 1627 (Ohio 2001). · cites it 3× “Phillips, an attorney who is an elector of Avon, filed a written protest pursuant to R.C. 3513.263 with respondent, Lorain County Board of Elections, against Wearsch’s petition.”
State Ex Rel. Miller v. Warren Cnty. Bd. of Elections, 2011 Ohio 4623 (Ohio 2011). · cites it 2× “{¶ 9} Instead of filing a written protest with the board of elections against Gilb’s petition pursuant to R.C. 3513.263 (“processing of nominating petitions; protests”) and 3501.”
Show all 23 citing cases →
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.