The Ohio legislature may vote this week to pass a new law requiring mail-in ballots to arrive by 5 p.m. on Election Day in order to count.
Republicans on the Ohio House General Government Committee voted on Tuesday to advance Senate Bill 293, which appears to be on a fast track after the Ohio Senate approved it earlier this month.
The committee vote tees the bill up for a vote by the full House on Wednesday, when lawmakers are expected to approve a smorgasbord of bills in their final scheduled session before the holidays.
The Senate then could quickly sign off on changes the House committee made before advancing the bill on Tuesday. If the Senate approves the legislation, it would head to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature.
Republicans said Tuesday they want to pass the bill as soon as possible so it’s in place for the primary election next May.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the state’s top elections official, said the change will make the rules easier to understand for average voters and discourage them from procrastinating.
“When people know they have to have their ballot in by Election Day, they will respond to that,” LaRose said.
Democrats oppose the changes, which they said would unnecessarily punish voters whose ballots are delayed by slow mail delivery.
“We are punishing voters and changing the rules, essentially throwing out ballots simply because of delays in the mail,” said state Rep. Allison Russo, a Columbus-area Democrat who’s running for Secretary of State next year.
Currently, mailed absentee ballots still are counted if they arrive within four days after Election Day, as long as they have a pre-Election Day postmark. The grace period is meant to protect voters if their ballot is stuck in the mail.
But lawmakers say Ohio still is out of step with most states, including those in the region, by allowing any grace period at all. Republicans advanced SB293 under pressure from the Trump Administration. The Justice Department in September threatened to sue Ohio over the issue as part of a broader national push for more elections restrictions.
Republicans also said the change will prepare Ohio if the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates state laws that allow for late-arriving mail ballots. The high court recently decided to take up a case filed by the Republican National Committee challenging mail voting laws in Mississippi, which offer a five-day grace period for late-arriving ballots.
In Ohio, Republican lawmakers last voted in 2022 to trim the grace period for mail ballots from seven days, which had been the deadline for years.
Committee tweaks bill to add citizenship checks
Before approving SB293 on Tuesday, Republicans on the House General Government Committee amended it to add language from another bill.
The new language requires elections officials to check voter rolls against federal records to make sure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote and to ensure voter records match records from other state sources, like the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The bill requires elections officials to “promptly” cancel voter registrations for suspected non-U.S. citizens, who would have no ability to challenge the decision. For voters whose records were mismatched, the state would mail a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope with a registration update form.
Voters with mismatched records who don’t respond to the state mailing still would have a chance to vote by casting what’s called a provisional ballot, a special form of voting that gives elections officials extra time to verify a voter’s identity.
LaRose described the amendment as making his office’s existing practices part of permanent state law.
Democrats, voting-rights advocates question changes
Democrats voted against the bill, saying they hadn’t had enough time to study the new amendments after receiving it a few hours before the committee hearing began.
“This is being rushed through. There’s been a lot of concepts that have not been vetted,” said state Rep. Juanita Brent, a Cleveland Democrat.
Groups that support more expansive voting laws also opposed the bill during testimony on Tuesday.
Collin Marozzi, an official with the ACLU of Ohio, called the bill part of a troubling trend in which Ohio has tightened its election laws. He said several recent local elections have been decided by late-arriving ballots.
Jen Miller, president of the Ohio League of Women Voters, predicted the bill will result in an increase in provisional voting, which may force more voters to travel to elections offices shortly after the election to ensure their ballots are counted.
She also said native-born voters whose citizenship status is questioned would have a hard time finding documents proving they were born in the U.S.
“Using bad data to assume that someone is not an eligible voter and kick them off the rolls without significant due process is not acceptable,” Miller said.
