Payday lenders turn in signatures for Ohio ballot

COLUMBUS (AP) — Payday lenders turned in 422,000 petition signatures on Sunday in an attempt to repeal part of a lending law that is one of the strictest of its kind in the nation.

Lenders will now wait to see if Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner certifies the signatures and enables the repeal of the law to be placed on the November ballot. They need a little more than 241,000 signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties to qualify for the ballot.

Gov. Ted Strickland signed in June a law that restricts the annual percentage rate that lenders can charge to 28 percent, and limits the number of loans customers can take to four per year.

Lenders have been charging what amounts to a 391 percent annual rate, which critics said all too often traps customers in a cycle of debt. Lenders argue that people should be able to make their own financial choices, and that allowing the restrictions to go through will force businesses to close and 6,000 employees to lose their jobs.

“It’s clear from this massive number of signatures there is a strong sentiment among voters that politicians need to stop killing jobs and financial choices in the state — especially when the economy is faltering and businesses are fleeing Ohio,” said Bridgette Roman, a committee member of Ohioans for Financial Freedom.

Opponents of the lenders made their presence known at the filing of the signatures with a scarlet-and-gray shark mascot wearing a sign that read, “391 percent APR Loan Sharking.”

“It’s not about choice. It’s about greed,” said Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for the Vote YES on Issue 5 Campaign. “We think even though we’re going to be outspent remarkably we’re still going to win if they get on the ballot.”

The submission of the petition signatures comes in the wake of an often bitter campaign between the lenders and the industry’s opponents, who made several claims that lenders had violated the law by misleading people into signing the petition, and in some cases, paying voters to sign it.