Republican leaders are busy trying to sneak terrible new voting restrictions into Ohio law by passing Substitute House Bill 458. With Tuesday’s surprise amendment, the Senate Local Government Committee has transformed a simple bill to eliminate August special elections into a complete election overhaul that creates large barriers to the ballot box and will create massive confusion at the polls. Lawmakers are trying to keep voters in the dark about their plans to make voting more difficult, and they gave the public just a few hours notice to testify against the substitute bill. Voters will lose many important voting freedoms including:

• Voters will lose the freedom to register to vote and vote with an alternate form of ID such as a utility bill, government document, or paycheck. Voters will be forced to provide a strict photo ID to vote, whether voting by absentee ballot, or in person on Election Day, or provisionally;

• Voters will lose the freedom to vote provisionally with the last four digits of their social security number, unless they have religious exemption that excuses them from the strict photo ID requirement;

• Voters will be punished by slow mail delivery. Voters will have their absentee ballots thrown out if their ballots are not received by the close of polls on Election Day (this shorter deadline applies to overseas and military voters as well). Previously absentee ballots that contained a timely postmark were counted as long as the post office delivered ballots to the boards of elections within 10 days following Election Day;

• Voters will lose access to dropboxes by limiting Boards of Election to a single drop box location, open only during business hours only, and limited to the early voting period;

• Voters will lose courtesy mailings of unsolicited absentee ballot applications from the Secretary of State or any elected official;

• Voters lose the ability to have postage for their absentee ballot requests and ballots prepaid by the government;

• Noncitizens risk being targeted and harassed by a new requirement to list citizenship status on Ohio driver’s license.

• Going forward, only voters with physical disabilities will be allowed to access curbside voting; and

• Grandchildren will continue to be prohibited from dropping off their grandparents’ absentee ballots.  

• Voters will lose the last Monday day of early voting, one of the most popular days of early voting. Hours that were previously codified in Sub. HB 294 are eliminated;

That’s why we are urging you to take action now – send an email to your Ohio lawmakers now urging them to vote no on Sub. HB 458. On behalf of the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition Steering Committee, thank you for taking action.

- ACLU of Ohio, All Voting is Local Action, Common Cause Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, & Ohio Voice