Ohio Supreme Court Rules Ashville Must Submit Data Center Referendum to Elections Board

The Ohio Supreme Court has established a binding precedent that constrains how every municipal government in the state — including those in Richland County — can handle citizen petition drives on economic-development deals.

In a unanimous Aug. 7 order, the court ruled that the village of Ashville improperly blocked a referendum petition challenging a data center and natural-gas power plant agreement, and directed the village to submit the petition to the Pickaway County Board of Elections. The decision means local councils across Ohio, including in Mansfield, Shelby and Ontario, cannot unilaterally refuse to forward qualifying referendum petitions when residents challenge major infrastructure projects.

What happened in Ashville

Ashville, a Pickaway County village of about 4,500 residents, set the dispute in motion April 6 when its council approved Resolution No. 06-2026 — a development and supply agreement term summary with data center developer EdgeConneX for a campus and an up-to-800-megawatt natural-gas power plant on roughly 110 acres. The council designated the measure as emergency legislation.

A group of residents organized a referendum petition challenging the approval and seeking a public vote. The Pickaway County Board of Elections found 669 valid signatures, nearly 200 more than needed to qualify for the ballot. Ashville officials refused to forward the petition anyway.

What the court said

The Supreme Court unanimously ordered Ashville's fiscal officer to certify the petition and submit it to the elections board, overriding the village's refusal.

Central to the ruling was the court's finding that emergency designations for municipal legislation must state specific reasons — within the legislation itself — explaining how a 30-day delay would harm the public interest. General language that could fit virtually any measure is not enough. The court said Ashville's justification "could broadly apply to almost any emergency measure." It added: "We see nothing that indicates that a 30-day delay … would impede the data-center project or the village's receipt of funding from EdgeConneX."

Following the order, the Pickaway County Board of Elections voted unanimously to place the referendum on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot.

What it means for Richland County

The ruling is binding statewide. Municipal officials in Richland County communities cannot block ballot access by simply refusing to submit petitions when residents challenge economic-development agreements.

That does not mean every petition automatically reaches voters. Under Ohio law, legislative actions by municipalities are generally subject to referendum, while administrative actions implementing existing policies are exempt. Referendum petitions must be filed within 30 days of passage and carry signatures from 10 percent of the electors who voted for governor in the municipality at the most recent general election. County boards of elections retain authority to review whether petitions meet mandatory technical requirements, including signature counts, timely filing and required circulator statements.

That review process played out locally in July, when the Richland County Board of Elections rejected a municipal referendum petition seeking a November vote on the annexation of land for a planned Buc-ee's Travel Center in Mansfield, finding it did not meet mandatory legal requirements, including required circulator statements.

What remains unresolved

The Ashville ruling draws a clear line against vague emergency designations used to sidestep voter petitions, but it does not address every circumstance in which an emergency designation might hold up. How courts will evaluate more specific emergency claims — and how aggressively municipal officials will test that boundary on future infrastructure deals — are questions Ohio communities have yet to answer.