Lawmakers in both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate are considering legislation that would needlessly and harmfully make it harder for Ohioans to register, vote, and have their ballots counted.

SB 153 and SB293 represent a shameful attack on Ohio voters. Both of these bills are being discussed in hearings and voted on WITHOUT INPUT FROM OHIO ELECTIONS OFFICIALS – because our elections experts are busy right now carrying out an election.

Between them, these two bills would make all these harmful and unnecessary changes:

SB293

• Eliminate the four-day grace period for absentee ballots to arrive after election day. This would result in voted ballots being thrown out because the US postal service was slow. This would especially harm rural Ohio voters, Ohio seniors and Ohioans with disabilities, Ohio voters without reliable transportation.

SB153

• Require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote – disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of eligible Ohio voters.
• Eliminate drop boxes entirely;
• Require registered voters to vote provisionally if there’s any mismatch with their name or address on their license;
• Cancel a provisional voter’s registration if they did not successfully “cure” their ID within four days at the Board of Elections;
• Require petition signers to be registered to vote before they sign a petition;
• Allow the Secretary of State or Boards of Elections to subpoena a petition circulator if they do not fully comply with strict rules for signed statements, conditions of compensation, and personally counting number of signatures;
• Create numerous new bureaucratic tasks and hurdles for election officials – without providing any additional funding.

Send emails to your Ohio Representative and Senator telling them to stop attacks on Ohio voters and Ohio elections!