COLUMBUS – If voters get the chance on Nov. 6 to judge a new state law cracking down on strip clubs, they’ll find nothing in the ballot language resembling the racier language of the law itself.

The first thing they’ll see is how the “no touch” law would affect local governments’ legal bills and adult-business ordinances already on the books.

But Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, chairman of the five-member Ohio Ballot Board, last week insisted that the language should indicate how the seriousness of the crime of touching a nude or semi-nude performer can escalate based on where the performer is touched.

“It’s a big difference between if a person gets touched and where they are touched,” she said. “It’s the difference between 30 days and six months … I thought that was important for the public to know.”

The summary that would appear on the ballot, however, will not mention which “specific anatomical areas” would trigger an escalation of the crime.

The secretary of state’s office plans to open on Labor Day to accept petitions from a coalition of strip club owners and dancers seeking to repeal the law overwhelmingly approved by the General Assembly.

Set to go into effect Sept. 4, the law would force strip clubs, adult video stores, X-rated theaters, and other “sexually oriented businesses” to close from midnight to 6 a.m. If a club has a liquor license allowing it to remain open until 2 a.m., no fully nude entertainment could occur during those two extra hours.

The law also toughens penalties if nude or seminude performers and their audience come into direct contact with one another. An illegal touch could translate into a fourth-degree misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. The crime would escalate to a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if a patron touches the performer in a “specified anatomical area,” defined in the law as the genitals, pubic region, or a specific portion of the female breast.

Filings of the petitions would prevent the law from taking effect. If a review by county boards of elections ultimately finds the petitions lack the minimum 241,366 signatures of registered voters, the effort’s backers would have 10 more days to patch them.

While the ballot committee carefully steered clear of any suggestive language in its summary, Citizens for Community Values, the conservative, Cincinnati-based group that placed the issue before lawmakers in the first place, was more blunt.

In its “pro” argument to appear in official newspaper ads and other publications, CCV argues that a vote in favor of the law would be a vote against “lap dances” and “bump and grind.”

“It’s time to stop letting the Larry Flynts of the world dictate our community standards,” it reads.

The argument from Citizens for Community Standards, the strip club group, countered that a vote for repeal would be a vote against “Ohio’s self-appointed morality police.”

“The law is so extreme that if a customer and dancer just shake hands, they both could go to jail for 30 days,” the argument reads.

Much to the chagrin of the law’s backers, the ballot board sided with the strip club group in mentioning high up in the ballot summary that the state law would preempt conflicting local laws, essentially making the referendum also about local home-rule authority.