Government of Ohio

The government of the U.S. state of Ohio consists of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. Its basic structure is set forth in the Constitution and law of Ohio.

The daily administration of the state’s laws are carried out by six elected statewide officials; the chief executive the Governor, and their second in command the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, and by the staff and employees of the executive branch agencies.

All are elected statewide for four-year terms, all on a partisan ballot, with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor elected on a single ticket.

The state government is primarily organized into several cabinet or administrative departments:

Notices and proposed rules are published in the Register of Ohio, which are codified in the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC).

The legislative branch, the Ohio General Assembly, is made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is composed of 99 members elected from single-member districts of equal population. Each of the 33 senate districts is formed by combining three house districts. Senators serve four-year staggered terms and representatives serve two-year terms. The General Assembly, with the approval of the Governor, draws the U.S. congressional district lines for Ohio's 15 seats in the United States House of Representatives. The Ohio Apportionment Board draws state legislative district lines in Ohio.

In order to be enacted into law, a bill must be adopted by both houses of the General Assembly and signed by the Governor. If the Governor vetoes a bill, the General Assembly can override the veto with a three-fifths supermajority of both houses. A bill will also become a law if the Governor fails to sign or veto it within 10 days of its being presented. The session laws are published in the official Laws of Ohio. These in turn have been codified in the Ohio Revised Code.

The judicial branch is headed by the Ohio Supreme Court, which has one chief justice and six associate justices, each elected to staggered six-year terms.