The grace period, which used to be 10 days, was intended to account for snags and delays in the United States Postal Service. Ballots must be postmarked by the day before the election to be counted.
The change in law was sealed by a 58-29 vote in the Ohio House and a subsequent 23-10 concurrence vote in the Senate. In both instances, approval was carried by the chambers’ Republican supermajorities.
Their votes send Senate Bill 293, first introduced in mid-October, to the desk of Gov. Mike DeWine. If he signs it, Ohioans will have to have their mail-in ballots delivered to their local board of elections by the time polls close on Election Day in order to count.
In the 2024 presidential election, the grace period allowed 241 ballots to be counted in Butler County, 57 ballots to be counted in Clark County and 250 ballots in Montgomery County, according to the local boards of elections, Dayton Daily News reporting found. Statewide data puts that number at fewer than 8,000 ballots.
Besides eliminating the grace period, S.B. 293 would require the Ohio Secretary of State to check voter rolls monthly, instead of annually, for non-citizens. It expressly directs local boards of elections to cancel non-citizen’s registration, and requires Ohio’s Election Integrity Unit to open an investigation into any registered non-citizen.
The bill also requires a regular review of Ohio’s voter rolls to ensure voter registration forms match the information collected by the BMV, and a mandate to cross-reference the state’s voter roll with an expanded set of databases that track deaths to ensure deceased Ohioans do not maintain their voter registration.
Wednesday’s vote was preceded by a recent flurry of action regarding the legal standing of late-arriving mail-in ballots, and a long-looming shadow of doubt over America’s electoral system, propagated by President Donald Trump.
In October 2024, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which does not have jurisdiction over Ohio, ruled that Mississippi’s practice of accepting late-arriving absentee ballots was unconstitutional for federal elections, based on the argument that federal elections must occur “on a single day,” according to federal law.
That ruling, which doesn’t affect provisional ballots or overseas ballots, will be either affirmed or overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court sometime in 2026.
On the back of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, the Trump administration issued an executive order in March that instructs the U.S. Attorney General to target states that count late-arriving ballots, and for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to cut off supplemental funding to those same states.
On Tuesday, in S.B. 293’s sole hearing in the Ohio House, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose testified as a proponent of the bill. He said he was contacted “several weeks ago” by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Attorneys for the Department suggested to my legal team that federal litigation would be filed against Ohio to challenge our current ballot return policy. At that time, I asked for the opportunity to address this matter through legislation rather than litigation, and the Department agreed to this approach,” LaRose said.
Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, told this outlet Wednesday that the Justice Department’s threats weren’t “the No. 1 factor” in Republican leadership’s decision to fast-track the bill. Instead, McColley pointed to his interest in lining up Ohio’s law with the majority of other states.
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, saw it differently. She accused the legislature of pandering to the president.
“What I make of that is it’s one more way for the guy in the White House to get what he wants,” Antonio told this outlet. “If he can’t get it through any kind of popularity or people actually supporting the policies of him and his administration, then they go to threatening people in order to get the same result.”
LaRose, who oversees the state’s elections, told House lawmakers that he was concerned about the U.S. Supreme Court’s looming decision, which he expects to come down in summer 2026.
“Any decision that conflicts with current state law has the potential to disrupt our voting process. Should the court find that federal law conflicts with Ohio law, we could face the confusing and costly outcome of having to use bifurcated ballots,” LaRose said, noting that one solution in that scenario would be to have separate ballots for state and federal elections in 2026.
Another solution would be to adjust state law if and when the Supreme Court determines that Ohio law conflicts with federal law. But House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, shot down that idea Wednesday, arguing a summer change in Ohio’s election laws would force Ohio to use different rules in its May 2026 primary election compared to its November 2026 general election.
“That’s a problem,” he said. “Basically, we want to get the new program underway and educate voters.”
Rank-and-file Republicans said they wanted the bill because it was good policy, noting that 34 states across the country, red and blue alike, don’t accept late-arriving ballots.
“In my opinion, we don’t want to be like California, District of Columbia, Illinois or New York and allow this grace period,” Rep. Adam Bird, R-Richmond, said on the floor. He argued S.B. 293 would “tighten loopholes,” “instill confidence and credibility to our election process,” “minimize post-election litigation,” and “ensure that Ohio is abiding by federal election law.”
Democrats in both chambers rebuked the law and questioned Republican leaders’ stated reasoning for the change.
Rep. Allison Russo, an Upper Arlington Democrat who launched a 2026 bid for secretary of state, framed the change as a favor to the Trump administration, whose battle against absentee ballots is largely based on the idea that mail-in ballots are ripe for fraud — an assertion that has been refuted by LaRose.
“The whole reason that we are here preemptively changing Ohio’s practice in our state law is based on complaints from the Department of Justice that mail-in voting represents potential voting fraud,” Russo said.
“There is no federal law that is being violated,” she added.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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