State officials have finalized the language voters will see on the ballot this November when they decide whether to add Ohio’s existing voter ID requirement to the state constitution.
The Ohio Ballot Board approved the ballot language for Issue 3, the measure’s official name, during a meeting at the Statehouse on Monday. The vote was 4-1, with Democratic state Sen. Bill DeMora joining the board’s Republican members, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, in approving the language.
For instance, the ballot language’s title describes Issue 3 as requiring “voters to present photo identification in order to vote.” The approved language also includes four bullet points that describe what the amendment does.
The seemingly banal process of writing and approving ballot language for proposed state constitutional amendments has been a major political battleground in Ohio in recent years. That’s because research has shown voters can be swayed by ballot language, since many only learn about a proposed ballot issue when they show up to vote.
Democrats accused Republicans of writing biased ballot language intended to defeat a citizen-proposed abortion-rights amendment that voters approved in 2023, and have said the language Republicans wrote for a redistricting reform amendment in 2024 contributed to its defeat.
But on Monday, the discussion around Issue 3 was relatively muted.
Democrats pushed for minor technical revisions to the language and an accompanying issue summary. Republicans accepted two of them – including adding the word “unexpired” to a section describing Ohio driver licenses and Ohio state IDs as acceptable forms of government ID.
Republicans also agreed to add the phrase “one of the specific types of government‑issued photo identification listed” to a section with the official explanation of Issue 3 describing how voters could only present certain types of photo IDs.
This story originally appeared at signalohio.com.