The bill also eliminated the grace period for Ohio’s domestic mail-in ballots to still be counted so long as they were postmarked the day before the election and arrive at the board of elections within four days of Election Day.
The grace period was established as a method to account for delays in the postal service, and would have eliminated 10,000 ballots during the 2024 presidential election, Jen Miller, president of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, previous told this newspaper.
The groups argue that the bill is a violation of the National Voter Registration Act and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.
In particular, they say that the citizenship data in the databases is outdated, leading to eligible voters such as newly naturalized citizens being wrongfully purged; that removals on the eve of an election violates the federal law’s prohibition on systemic reviews of voter data during the 90-day period before an election; and that the law doesn’t give enough protection to allow wrongly removed voters to fix their registration in time to vote.
According to the release, the organizations filed the lawsuit after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose declined to correct violations of federal law that they listed in a letter sent Jan. 22.
“Instead of welcoming new voters who have gone to great lengths to participate in our democracy, SB 293 creates an unnecessary, discriminatory hurdle for naturalized citizens to cast their ballots,” Miller said.
League director of legal and research Caren Short said, “Eligible voters should be encouraged — not burdened — when exercising their fundamental right to vote. The League is fighting discriminatory laws across the country that target naturalized citizens and other historically disenfranchised communities. These laws only serve to weaken our democracy and erode confidence in our elections.”
About the Author
