The campaign behind a $15 minimum wage amendment in Ohio opted not to submit the hundreds of thousands of signatures it collected before the state’s Wednesday deadline and instead vowed to try for a ballot measure in 2025, according to a statement.

One Fair Wage’s decision means there will be no option to raise the state’s $10.45 minimum wage this November, to the delight of many pro-business groups, including the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.

“The proponents are calling themselves ‘One Fair Wage?’ I guess my reaction would be, ‘Fair to who?’” said Chris Kershner, president and CEO of the Dayton chamber, in an interview. “It doesn’t sound like mandates on the business community are very fair to the employers in Ohio.”

Under One Fair Wage’s proposal, a $15 minimum wage would be phased in over two years and would be tied to rise at the same rate of inflation.

“When mandates are put onto businesses, businesses have to make operation decisions that impact their companies, their people, their investments and their growth,” Kershner said. He added that the chamber would still need to run the numbers and he couldn’t provide real estimates of how much a higher wage would affect Dayton-area businesses, or how many layoffs it might bring.

One Fair Wage would have needed to deliver its petitions to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office in Columbus before midnight Wednesday.

In order to get on the ballot, any citizen-initiated constitutional amendment aiming for the ballot this year would need to submit 413,487 signatures of valid Ohio voters, with at least half of Ohio’s counties producing signatures that represent 5% of the voters who partook in the last gubernatorial election in that county.

In a statement first shared by the Statehouse News Bureau and later confirmed by Journal-News, One Fair Wage said it fell short in Ohio’s rural areas and, therefore, did not meet the 44-county requirement.

The organization attributed its shortcomings to “violence and intimidation toward our low-wage worker of color canvassers, who were verbally abused and harassed by those opposing raises for workers” in rural counties. The campaign did not immediately provide details to corroborate these accusations when the Dayton Daily News asked.

In a Wednesday night statement, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose called out One Fair Wage for placing blame on rural Ohioans. He characterized it as “a duplicitous, disorganized goat rodeo of a campaign that has made every excuse in the book for their lack of compliance with the law.”

“I won’t sit quietly while any group distorts the truth to cover for their own negligence,” LaRose said.

One Fair Wage’s own statement concluded with a vow to continue collecting signatures and to try again next year.

By holding off, One Fair Wage is playing it safe to ensure that it can use the bulk of the signatures it already collected in the future. Here’s how the cost-benefit analysis works in these situations:

• In Ohio, turning in 413,487 signatures is enough to begin the state’s verification process. From there, the state would send each county’s signatures to the respective county board of elections, which would then verify whether those signatures are valid. The counties would then send their findings back to the Ohio Secretary of State, which would determine if, in the end, the campaign had submitted enough valid signatures to meet the state’s lofty ballot requirements.

• If it’s determined that there weren’t enough valid signatures, the campaign would get a 10-day cure period to try to collect enough valid signatures to get over the line.

• However, if the campaign falls short of the initial 413,487 signature haul, or falls short after the 10-day cure period, the entire process would restart and none of the previously collected signatures could be used in the future.

• Luckily for organizers in positions like One Fair Wage, signatures for citizen-initiated amendments in Ohio are evergreen (so long as the individual’s voter registration remains the same), which gives petitioners the option of simply holding off until they are absolutely certain they’d make the ballot.

This story originally appeared on journal-news.com.

PLAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The boyfriend of a woman who was reported missing earlier this week is being held in jail on a $1 million bond after the woman’s body was found in a park near Canton.

Sean Goe, 26, of Plain Township, has yet to be charged with the murder of Raychel Sheridan, 24, also of Plain Township. He is being held on active warrants for burglary, grand theft of a firearm, and domestic violence, according to the Stark County Sheriff’s Office. The domestic violence charge involved Sheridan, the sheriff’s office says.

Goe was arrested Wednesday morning by Canton police at a homeless shelter. It ended a nearly multi-hour search for Goe after Sheridan was reported missing just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday from a residence on the 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW.

While deputies were searching the home and the surrounding area for Sheridan, deputies spotted a maroon Jeep Liberty registered to her driving on Guilford Avenue NW. Deputies pulled the Jeep over and found Goe was driving, but fled on foot.

The Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force and the State Highway Patrol were called in to help search the area for Goe, who was found in the early-morning hours Wednesday at the homeless shelter.

The sheriff’s office says detectives searched the apartment shared by Sheridan and Goe determined Sheridan was killed in the residence. The sheriff’s office says unspecified evidence was recovered “indicating foul play.”

Canton sanitation workers found what it believed to be Sheridan’s body just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in a park in a southwest section of Canton, the sheriff’s office says.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of Raychel’s loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Stark County Sheriff George Maier said in a statement.

The sheriff’s office released no other details Wednesday and says the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information can contact the Stark County Sheriff’s Office at 330-430-3800.

The Ohio State Buckeyes boast arguably the most talented roster in the country heading into the 2024 season. While it’s certainly exciting, it also puts a whole lot of pressure on the team.

Really, anything short of a championship this year will be a disappointment, and new Ohio State quarterback Will Howard has doubled down on those expectations.

“For us, it’s natty or bust,” Howard said, via Zach Barnett of Football Scoop. “I mean, there’s no doubt in my mind.”

That goes for pretty much everyone, but it definitely hits different when the projected starting quarterback vocalizes it.

Howard is transferring over from Kansas State and is expected to be under center when the Buckeyes open their regular season agains Akron on Aug. 31.

Funny enough, as stacked as Ohio State’s roster is, the one area of potential concern is the quarterback position.

While the Buckeyes certainly have a talented group of signal-callers, there are questions as to whether or not any of the quarterbacks on the squad are truly capable of leading the team to a national title.

Howard was good—not great—in his final season at Kansas State, throwing for 2,643 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 61.3 percent of his passes in 2023. He also rushed for 351 yards and nine scores.

“We have all the talent. We have all the intangibles,” added Howard. “Now, we’ve just got to go do it. I’m tired of hearing how talented we are and how good our team is. It’s about the work ethic and how we go to work every single day, and I think we’re doing the things that we need to to put ourselves in that position to be there at the end of the year and now we’ve just got to go do it.”

Clearly, Howard knows what needs to be done. You get the feeling that the rest of the ballclub understands, as well.

But until Ohio State actually gets on the field in 2024, we won’t actually know how dominant the team really is…although you have to admit that the Buckeyes look pretty scary.