COLUMBUS -- It's back to the drawing board for opponents of Ohio's new elections law.

Attorney General Mike DeWine Monday rejected proposed petition language seeking a ballot issue to repeal portions of House Bill 194 which, among numerous other provisions, includes new restrictions on absentee, provisional, in-person early voting, and ballot issues.

Fair Elections Ohio, a group that counts former Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner as its co-chairman, must gather another 1,000 valid signatures of registered voters to submit revised language for approval. The group is racing against the clock, since it faces an early October deadline to gather more than 231,000 signatures to qualify for the November, 2012, ballot and place the challenged portions of the law on hold until then.

The Republican attorney general must sign off that the summary language that would-be petition signers see is an accurate representation of what the ballot issue would do. Mr. DeWine said the first language submitted contains statements that are inaccurate or misleading. Among other things, he said the language cited wrong sections of existing law.

"The saddest part of this decision is that people's voting rights are now put at greater risk as the initial petition effort is reworked to address phantom requirements inserted by state bureaucrats," Ms. Brunner said. "Today's decision impedes the free exchange of ideas and direct political participation by the people in a referendum process, but then again, it's those parts of the bill we have sought to bring to the people in the first place that carry these same traits."

Secretary of State Jon Husted Monday certified that Fair Elections Ohio had gathered a sufficient number of valid signatures to put the question before Mr. DeWine.

As Ohio's top elections official, Mr. Husted had championed some of the provisions contained in House Bill 194. He urged the committee, if it goes ahead, to challenge the entire law rather than pick and choose between parts of it.

"While there may be differences of opinion on both sides of the aisle, my primary goal has always been to find the right balance between elections accuracy and voter access to the polls," he said.

First Published August 2, 2011, 4:27 a.m.