Voting rights amendment could be on Ohio ballots next election

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohioans could decide next election whether to pass a proposed voting rights amendment that would permit counties to set multiple early vote locations, allow for same-day registration, and relax photo ID requirements.

Proponents of the proposed constitutional amendment, named "The Ohio Voters Bill of Rights," can begin collecting signatures after the Ohio Ballot Board ruled Monday that the proposal is singularly focused. Had the board decided otherwise, the proposal would've been split up and proponents would've been required to circulate multiple petitions.

The Voters Bill of Rights would make several changes to Ohio's voting process, like creating a system to update a person's voter registration automatically when visiting the BMV and overturning state law requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote in person. Attorney Jyoti Jasrasaria argued during the Monday meeting that the proposal should not be divided because each of these changes relates to voting.

"Here, each and every provision of the amendment relates to voting and, in particular, facilitating and securing the right to vote," Jasrasaria said before the board's vote, representing the proponent group named "Ohio Organizing Collaborative." "When a similar ballot measure was proposed in 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the ballot board to certify it as a single amendment."

While Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the chair of the board, ultimately voted to keep the amendment as is, he argued that the proposal includes "three broad subject areas." LaRose spoke against some of the proposal's provisions, like same-day voter registration that he said could lead to a non-U.S. citizen "submitting a fictitious registration."

"The reason Ohio hasn't done [same-day registration] is that it takes away the time period necessary for the boards of elections to make sure that that is in fact a valid registration, that it's not a made-up address," LaRose said during the meeting. "It seems like this would really weaken our ability to protect that essential part of our process."

Now, Ohio Organizing Collaborative can begin collecting the nearly 443,000 signatures needed in order for the proposed amendment to appear on the ballot. However, the group has yet to decide whether they'll aim to have Ohioans vote on the proposal during elections in 2025 or in 2026.

"[The proposal] is certainly meant to facilitate and expand the right to vote and this is a people-powered amendment that means to restore the right of a people-powered democracy to all eligible Ohioans," Jasrasaria said.