COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohioans would have to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote in order to participate in state and local elections, under new legislation recently proposed in the Ohio Senate.
Senate Bill 319, introduced by Republican state Sen. Niraj Antani of suburban Dayton, follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in August upholding a similar proof-of-citizenship voter-registration law already on the books in Arizona.
Under Antani’s bill, people registering to vote in Ohio, or who are notifying elections officials that they are changing their name or address, would have to offer one of several documents proving they are a U.S. citizen, including a current or expired state driver’s license or ID card that doesn’t have “noncitizen” written on it, a U.S. passport, a certificate of naturalization, a certificate of citizenship, or birth records.
Those who don’t provide such records would still be allowed to register to vote, but at election time, they could would only be allowed to vote in races for federal-level offices such as president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Such “federal-only” voters also would be ineligible to sign election petitions in Ohio.
“Securing Ohio’s elections must be our top priority. This bill will stop illegal immigrants from voting in our elections,” Antani said in a statement. “As the Biden administration has allowed open borders and an invasion of illegal immigrants into our country, we must take every precaution to ensure they don’t vote in our elections.”
SB319’s chances of becoming law are reduced because it was only introduced a couple months before the end of the current legislative session. Antani is set to leave the Senate at the end of the year, as he decided against seeking reelection after the Ohio Redistricting Commission redrew his district to become more friendly to Democrats.
But Antani’s bill, introduced less than a week before the Nov. 5 general election, reflects rising fears among many Republicans about undocumented immigrants illegally casting ballots to help Democrats, as well as more general concerns about election security and immigration.
At the same time, though, several checks conducted by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office since 2019 have only turned up about 600 suspected cases of voting by non-citizens, out of about 8 million registered voters in the state. Few of those have resulted in criminal charges, as prosecuting attorneys say the cases are weak. Attorney General Dave Yost recently announced indictments against six noncitizens he says voted in Ohio, but one has been dead for two years.
Earlier this week, a federal court upheld a new policy from LaRose‘s office allowing recently naturalized citizens who still hold “noncitizen”-marked Ohio driver’s licenses and ID cards to cast a ballot at the polls, so long as they present documented proof of citizenship.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a legal challenge to the policy, pointing to a 2006 federal court ruling that threw out an Ohio law requiring naturalized citizens to show their certificate of naturalization in order to vote in person. The judge hearing the ACLU‘s challenge, though, held the ACLU couldn‘t show the policy placed any “undue burden” on the plaintiffs’ voting rights.
Antani, asked via text whether his bill — if passed — would run afoul of that 2006 court ruling, replied that he wasn’t aware of the case, but he noted that his bill deals with voter registration, not challenges to Ohioans attempting to cast a ballot.
Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.