Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose added his support last week to a proposal requiring Ohioans submit proof of citizenship when they register to vote. But even LaRose acknowledged implementing the idea could be harder than it seems.
Opponents of the idea, meanwhile, insisted the changes are unnecessary and will disenfranchise many Ohioans.
LaRose’s testimony
LaRose urged lawmakers to approve Ohio Senate Bill 153 but offered a caveat about its roll out.
He said it’s provisions “can be successfully implemented according to the terms and timelines” outlined in the bill.
LaRose stressed the decentralized nature of Ohio’s elections system and cautioned that hammering out the details of citizenship verification will take time.
The secretary also spoke favorably about Ohio Senate Bill 293, which requires absentee ballots arrive at the board of elections by election day to be valid.
Ohio law currently allows voters to return ballots within four days of the election so long as they’re postmarked no later than the day before the election.
As recently as 2022, boards would accept ballots 10 days after Election Day.
LaRose told the committee the Department of Justice has contacted his office and the Attorney General’s asserting Ohio’s timeline violates federal law and threatening legal action.
In a March executive order President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Attorney General to “take all necessary action” against states that accept absentee ballots after election day.
LaRose said an election day deadline brings Ohio in line with two thirds of states around the country and avoids a court date.
“My approach is always that it’s better to make changes like this through legislation and not litigation,” he said. “Or, as I like to say, election laws should be made at the statehouse and not at the courthouse.”
LaRose explained his office has worked hard to clear up simple discrepancies in the voter rolls like misspelled names or transposed digits.
But for cases they can’t figure out, the county board attempts to contact the voter and places their registration in “confirmation” status.
“This is where we run into a loophole that needs to be closed,” LaRose said.
Voters can still request and return absentee ballots in confirmation status, and LaRose contends that allows discrepancies to perpetuate.
If a voter doesn’t update mismatched information before an election, the measure would require them to cast a provisional ballot and update their registration at the county board for that vote to get counted.
As for requiring proof of citizenship to vote, LaRose thinks it’s a great idea, but he begged for time.
“All 88 counties will need to upgrade their voter registration system to meet the requirements of that front end citizenship verification,” he said, “as well as the Secretary of State’s office and database that will need to be upgraded to accommodate the additional data required in this legislation.”
State Sen. Willis Blackshear, D-Dayton, said those changes are likely to bog down lines on Election Day, and all those upgrades will cost money.
“It does cost money to do things the right way,” LaRose allowed. “I would argue it costs even more to not get them right.”
Critiques
League of Women Voters of Ohio Executive Director Jen Miller highlighted several changes to rules for petition circulators.
Under the bill, clerical errors could invalidate entire packets of signatures.
Voters who sign must be registered at the address listed at the time they sign — something many counties can’t even confirm, Miller noted.
And circulators would have to wear a badge identifying themselves as “paid” if they received anything of value.
“So, they would have to wear a badge if they had pizza or coffee or a t-shirt or a button,” Miller explained.
That doesn’t actually clear things up for voters, she said, and forces local elections officials to be “badge police.”
Miller also criticized a provision eliminating drop boxes.
In rural counties it can be a half-hour drive to get to the county board of elections, “that’s hard to do during business hours,” she said.
And dropping a ballot in the mail isn’t as reliable as it used to be.
In several counties, the postal service actually sends mail out of state for sorting before sending it back.
And she insisted the citizenship requirements will create new hurdles for rural voters, seniors and married women who change their name.
Research from the University of Maryland Center for Democracy an Civic Engagement indicates roughly 1 in 10 Americans don’t have the documentation they need.
“I want to be clear that every single one of you has constituents in your district who will not overcome these barriers,” Miller said.
“All of my people are from rural Ohio — I know it — and what I can tell you is they are less likely to have their citizenship verification documents that you are expecting.”
Bob McCollister, a Democratic member of the Lawrence County Board of Elections, insisted the proof of citizenship requirements are extreme and misguided.
“Nobody thinks non-citizens should vote,” he said, “but this is a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Despite concerted efforts to track down non-citizen voter fraud, the secretary has turned up only a small handful of cases that even warranted prosecution.
“As we’re doing this,” McCollister said, “we are adding more and more hurdles for legitimate Ohio voters to get tripped up in the system.”
The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, asked, as she often does, how many cases of voter fraud are acceptable?
McCollister pushed back, insisting Ohio’s handful of voter fraud prosecutions show fraud is rare and the system is working.
“When I get a headache, I don’t cut my head off to deal with a headache,” he said.
“This is an extreme solution to a problem that we already address.”
This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.