Ohio Payday-Loan Petition Circulators Accused of Misinforming Voters

Columbus Dispatch: A group supporting a crackdown on payday lenders charged yesterday that Ohio voters often are being misled by petition circulators working on behalf of those lenders. One circulator of the referendum petition even twice referred to payday lenders as "loan sharks" as he worked on the lenders' behalf. Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for the Protect HB 545 Committee, said she approached 12 petition circulators. Two told the truth about the issue, she said, while nine incorrectly stated that the referendum would lower interest rates. One, Theis said, told her she could not vote on the issue in November unless she signed the petition, which is not true. In all, those speaking at an afternoon news conference cited about 20 encounters with circulators in which they said they were told bad information about the issue. Two people from a Butler County homeless shelter said they were offered $1 each to sign. Kim Norris, spokeswoman for Ohioans for Financial Freedom, said each of the hundreds of circulators working statewide is provided "extensive training on their task and what they can and cannot say."

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