CINCINNATI — Ohioans would be required to provide documents proving they are U.S. citizens when they sign up to vote using state voter registration forms, a practice that is not permitted by current Ohio law, under a proposal made by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
If the legislature agrees, that would mean Ohioans would have to produce a birth certificate, passport, certificate of citizenship or naturalization or some other acceptable evidence of being a citizen before they could register to vote using state forms.
LaRose also called for the legislature to ban ballot drop boxes, according to an Aug. 29 letter LaRose sent Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, and House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, asking them to consider legislation he proposes on proof of citizenship, ballot boxes and provisional voting.
“To ensure the ongoing integrity of Ohio’s elections, I suggest urgent legislative attention to each of them,” LaRose, a Republican, said in the letter. “While it may be unrealistic to accomplish these reforms before the upcoming election, they are nonetheless changes that should be considered as soon as possible.”
LaRose said the legislature should require people to vote provisionally if their voter registration information doesn’t match their information kept by the Social Security Administration and state Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Those voters would have to go to their local board of elections to correct the information or their provisional vote would not be counted.
Voters already must keep their addresses up-to-date, or vote provisionally in their proper precinct if their address has changed.
LaRose also wants the legislature to ban ballot drop boxes after a federal court ruled in July that Ohio’s law that only certain family members and the U.S. Postal Service can deliver absentee ballots violates federal law allowing disabled people to choose who they want to deliver their ballot.
State Sen. Niraj Antani, R-Miami Twp., last year introduced a ban on ballot boxes that is now in committee. Currently each county can have one secure ballot box at or outside the county board of elections that people can use to deliver their ballots.
On Tuesday, Hamilton County Democrats held a press conference to address LaRose's "latest undemocratic power grab," they said in a press release. Those in attendance are asking LaRose to rescind his new directive.
"Wake up, people, this is a concerted effort to prevent you from voting," said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.
LaRose also said he would immediately prohibit people who are dropping off absentee ballots for another person from using ballot drop boxes. They would instead have to deliver it to the board of elections and sign a form confirming they are following the law.
Any dropboxes would also have to have signage posted with the new rule, which threatens jail time or a fine if broken.
"If you are taking your grandmother to drop off her ballot, and she says 'sweetheart can you drop it off at the box right over there,' you could be facing jail time," said Greg Landsman, incumbent candidate for Ohio's District 1. "Like, what are we doing?"
Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group focused on voting rights and election issues, said she's like to see LaRose focusing on inviting voters in and getting them ready for the 2024 election instead of thinking of "additional obstacles" or causing Ohio voters to question the integrity of elections.
"He's feeding into some of the worst myths surrounding our elections," Turcer said.
Ohio GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou said LaRose's proposed steps are simply common sense.
"This is a simple safeguard that we have for anyone who decides they're going to cast a ballot for another citizen," he said.
Triantafilou also said this measure is being introduced a month before early voting begins, giving voters plenty of time to understand the new rules.
Hamilton County Democrats said they believe the new directive is illegal, and they plan to file a lawsuit with other groups across the state to stop it.
Citizenship documents
It is illegal in the U.S. for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and when people register to vote on federal and Ohio’s voter registration forms they have to attest to being a citizen and face legal penalties for providing false information on the form.
While states and localities in the U.S. can let noncitizens vote in local elections, the Ohio Constitution prohibits noncitizens from voting in any elections. Ohio legislators put that constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2022 after Yellow Springs voters passed a law in 2019 allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, a decision LaRose thwarted by ordering the Greene County Board of Elections to not accept any noncitizen voter registrations.
Ohioans registering to vote already must provide a driver’s license or state identification number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number. LaRose’s proposal doesn’t specify what documents people would have to provide to prove citizenship. Nor does it say if people would be expected to give copies of those documents to the person registering them or if they would be kept on file with the state or county boards of election.
LaRose also wants to require that boards of election take more steps to check the citizenship status of people registering on the federal form.
“Federal law already states that noncitizens are not allowed to vote in our elections. This is nothing more than political posturing by Secretary LaRose to solve yet another problem that does not actually exist,” said Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio. “LaRose’s time would be better spent following the law rather than using his position to undermine the will of the citizens of Ohio and their ability to vote.”
Stephens and John Fortney, director of communications for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus, both indicated LaRose’s proposals would get a hearing in the legislature.
“Protecting the integrity of Ohio’s elections remains a priority as we witness the impact of the Biden administration’s dangerous failure to secure the border,” Fortney said. “We look forward to continuing the discussion to protect our state and local elections from a growing danger.”
Stephens said he looks forward to discussing LaRose’s proposals.
“It’s simple. You should be an American citizen to participate in America’s elections,” Stephens said. “I think this needs to be looked at and warrants discussion, as the issue varies from case to case.”
Earlier this year LaRose announced he had referred to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost what LaRose said was evidence that 597 noncitizens registered to vote in Ohio, including 138 who may have cast a ballot in an Ohio election. Those are among 1,033 referrals, including 233 alleged noncitizen voting referrals, LaRose sent to Yost since 2019, according to an analysis of LaRose’s news release announcements on his office’s website.
The 2024 referrals are under investigation by county prosecutors where the alleged offenses occurred, according to Steve Irwin, spokesman for Yost. But Irwin and LaRose’s spokesman, Dan Lusheck, did not know if any of the earlier referrals resulted in criminal charges or convictions.
Voter fraud is rare
Experts say voter fraud by American citizens or noncitizens is extremely rare — something Triantafilou said he agreed with Tuesday and called "not the norm." But some Republicans have cited fears of noncitizens voting, echoing baseless claims made by former President Donald Trump that that millions of noncitizens voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she won the popular vote but not the Electoral College vote that gave Trump the presidency. Trump, a Republican, is running for election this year against Vice President Kamala Harris and is again making claims about “illegal” immigrants voting.
U.S. House Republicans have proposed requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
In making his new proposal LaRose cited an Aug. 22 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an emergency appeal of an Arizona case. The Republican National Committee sought to keep in place a 2022 Arizona law that required proof of citizenship to register to vote on state forms and barring voters who registered on the federal form from voting for president or by mail without providing proof of citizenship, according to the Associated Press.
The brief unsigned order from the high court allows the proof of citizenship requirement to stand for those registering on Arizona state forms but forbids the state from denying those who registered on a federal form from voting for president or by mail. The legal battle over the law will continue in lower courts.
“The court’s decision limits the application of the law only to voter registration forms prescribed by the state, but this ruling effectively gives the Ohio General Assembly the option to adopt a similar requirement. I recommend that we do so,” LaRose said in his letter to Huffman and Stephens.
