3517.211 [Enactment Subject to referendum] Restriction period for candidate adverstising.

(A) No elected official of a county, township, municipal corporation, board of education, governing board of an educational service center, or other local political subdivision shall, during the ninety days before that elected official’s name appears on the ballot at an election, produce or disseminate any mass mailing or any form of advertising mailed from the official’s office or advertised in a periodical, on radio, internet, on television, or through another similar medium that includes the name or photograph of the elected official. A document or any form of advertising produced or disseminated during the ninety-day restricted period may include the name of the office the official holds, but shall not include the name or photograph of the official.

(B) No violation of division (A) of this section occurs, and no fine shall be imposed under section 3517.992 of the Revised Code, if an elected official who is subject to the provisions of division (A) of this section sends out daily and regular office correspondence from the official’s actual office or associated with the duties of that public office, and not including any other board or commission that the elected official serves on, in the ordinary course of business that is issued on a regular schedule throughout each year and directly necessary for the conduct of business by the office, such as tax bills, and that normal correspondence is sent during the ninety days before the date of any election at which the elected official’s name will appear on the ballot.

Added by 129th General Assembly File No. 40, HB 194, § 1. This enactment is subject to referendum in the Nov. 6, 2012 election.