Sixty-seven days. The paper's Friday Week 5 reading opened the week at sixty-eight days to July 1, with the same unpublished signature count Ohio Residents for Responsible Development — rebranded by some county-captain communications as Conserve Ohio — has held since the March 26 signature-gathering certification. Saturday subtracts one day. Nothing else moves.

The arithmetic remains static. The drive needs 413,488 valid signatures from voters in at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties to qualify the constitutional amendment for the November ballot — the deadline of July 1 is the floor, not the target. [1] Organizer Andrew Gula has publicly planned for 10 to 20 percent rejection rates, putting raw submissions in the 500,000 to 700,000 range. Without a running total — neither percent-to-target nor county-by-county yield — no external observer can assess whether the back end of the twelve-week drive is tracking plan. Saturday is the day after the first day of the second half. [2]

The amendment language has not changed. It would prohibit construction of any new data center drawing more than 25 megawatts per month — a threshold calibrated to capture hyperscaler AI-training facilities. [3] Ohio has roughly 200 data centers, fifth-most in the country. The Senate's parallel statutory track on a 20-megawatt floor is still active; if the legislature acts before July 1, the ballot proposal's political urgency diminishes. If it does not, the petitioners' arithmetic becomes the only instrument. The week's calendar dare is now seven Saturdays plus a Friday. The numbers, on Day 67, remain the figure nobody has published.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York