COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The fate of Senate Bill 5, Ohio's new collective bargaining law, will be in the hands of Ohio voters, the state's elections chief announced today.

The group leading the repeal effort submitted 915,456 valid signatures to put the law on the Nov. 8 ballot, according to Secretary of State Jon Husted. Only 231,147 signatures were required.

On top of submitting nearly four times the required number of verified signatures, the group, We Are Ohio, far exceeded another requirement to put the law on the ballot.

In 44 of Ohio's 88 counties, the signatures must represent at least 3 percent of the total votes cast in last year's gubernatorial election in those counties. We Are Ohio met the requirement in all 88 counties.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed a majority of voters surveyed think SB 5 should be repealed. The poll showed 56 percent of voters think the law should be repealed while 32 percent think it should be kept.

In an apparent coincidence, the signatures' verification was announced shortly after a heavyweight from the national labor movement met with Ohio labor leaders to rally support for the law's repeal.

National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and others held a round-table discussion in downtown Columbus today to kick off "phase two" in their fight to overturn SB 5, which reduces the collective bargaining power of about 360,000 public workers in Ohio. Phase one was the recent submission of nearly 1.3 million signatures to put the law on the ballot.

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