Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted says he wants legislators to repeal the law so the referendum won’t be needed.  But legislative leaders are not happy because they say Husted didn’t talk about that suggestion with them first…before taking the matter public Republican Senate President Tom Niehaus.

"Yes, that bothers me.  When people put a headline in front of good public policy, yes, hat bothers me.

Husted says his comments about the need to repeal the elections measure came about as he was speaking to workers from local boards of elections. While the  plan has been put on hold until voters decide its fate, poll workers are confused.

"All I was trying to do is to make the point that if it’s not going to become law before November and we were going to look at other ideas, wouldn’t it make sense for everybody to just repeal the bill so we didn’t have the controversy and hit the reset button and come together to work on these issues so that we have less controversy around our election law in this state.

Husted says he didn’t realize that his ideas were not expressed to Niehaus before Husted made them publicly.  Husted says he’s talked to senators but can’t remember specifically if he talked to Neihaus.