Ohio lawmakers voted Wednesday to shorten the deadline again for returning absentee ballots — removing any grace period and invalidating all ballots that arrive after Election Day. That measure, Ohio Senate Bill 293, is now on its way to the governor.
As recently as 2022, Ohio voters had a 10-day grace period for absentee ballots post-marked by Election Day to arrive at their local county board of elections to be officially counted. Ohio Republican lawmakers shortened that to four days for the 2024 election, and are now eliminating the grace period entirely.
Threats from the Trump administration spurred Ohio lawmakers into action. In a March executive order, the president introduced a novel reading of federal law and simply declared all absentee ballots arriving after Election Day should be rejected. In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice has been warning Ohio officials it might sue the state over the issue.
The bill’s sponsors also pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case out of Mississippi, which allows ballots to show up five days after an election.
Should the court reject absentee ballot grace periods, they argue, Ohio election officials could find themselves rushing to make sweeping changes ahead of a contentious federal election.
At the last minute, the bill picked up an amendment that critics warn will increase provisional voting “exponentially” and make it far easier to cancel a voter’s registration. The changes direct county boards to promptly cancel a person’s registration if the secretary of state determines they aren’t a citizen.
It’s a notable departure. Typically, county boards send a confirmation notice when they find a problem with a person’s registration. And it’s not like the secretary’s track record is perfect. Since taking office, Sec. Frank LaRose has flagged hundreds of individuals as alleged noncitizens. County prosecutors and the Ohio attorney general have largely brushed off his allegations and declined to prosecute all but a handful. Last year, LaRose’s review appeared to violate statutory requirements and wound up flagging recently naturalized citizens.
The amendment also directs the secretary to send reports to all 88 counties detailing apparent data mismatches. Voters identified in the report would receive a confirmation notice, and if they don’t provide corrected information, they’d have to vote provisionally.
House floor debate
On the House floor, state Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, explained the bill brings Ohio’s deadline in line with 34 others around the country.
A former election board member in Medina County, Ray emphasized that acting now will simplify changes at county boards, “allowing for an extensive voter awareness campaign” before the primary and ensuring “consistency” between the primary and general elections.
State Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, asked his colleagues if they want to “tighten loopholes,” “instill confidence and credibility” and ensure “Ohio is abiding by federal election law.”
“I do,” Bird said. “I would encourage you to want that as well.”
State Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, blasted the suggestion that Ohio’s current system is breaking the law.
“This notion that we would be violating federal law by continuing our grace period is false,” she said. “There is no federal law that is being violated. There is a court case that is being reviewed by the Supreme Court.”
Democrats brought three different amendments to the House floor. All of them failed. State Rep. Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland, proposed changes that would have created a permanent absent voter list. Russo offered language allowing voters to return absentee ballots at any polling location or county board of elections rather than just their county board.
State Rep. Ashley Bryant Bailey, D-Cincinnati, urged lawmakers to notify voters 60-90 days before an election if there’s a discrepancy in their records, “before they are blindsided at the polls and forced to vote provisionally.”
Bryant Bailey explained that notice matters to her because a clerical error nearly derailed her appointment to the House.
She changed her name when she got married and her registration initially didn’t follow her.
“You may support this bill, or you may oppose it,” she said, “but notice isn’t partisan. It’s basic fairness.”
State Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., spoke against each of the proposals before lawmakers tabled the amendments. He suggested a permanent absent voter list would open the door to family members voting on behalf of elderly, incapacitated voters. Allowing voters to turn in ballots at polling locations or other county boards would similarly “make Ohio elections less secure and open to fraud and abuse,” Williams said. Requiring notice before canceling a voter’s registration would lead to fraud, too, Williams insisted.
“If we really care about election integrity,” Williams said, “I think it’s reasonable for the Secretary of State to remove illegal immigrants from our voter rolls, even within 90 days of the election.”
For all Republicans stated concerns about complying with federal law, systematically removing voter registrations within 90 days of a federal election — as Williams suggested and as the bill would require — is barred by the National Voter Registration Act’s ‘quiet period’ provisions.
Last year, Virginia ordered just such a review that wound up removing 1,600 registrations, some of which belonged to eligible voters. A federal court and U.S. Court of Appeals sided with groups challenging those removals, but the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them to go forward without ruling on whether the process was valid.
Senate concurrence
Because of that eleventh-hour amendment, the Senate had to vote to concur with the House’s changes. Wednesday evening, the Senate took up the bill.
One of the bill’s sponsors, state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court deciding to hear the case out of Mississippi. That ruling will likely arrive next summer.
“It makes more sense and will be more efficient to introduce that change now; that way, there’s plenty of time to make sure every voter is aware and can make their vote on time,” she insisted.
State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, wasn’t buying it and called the bill an “all-out assault on democracy.”
“Why do we want to act on something before the Supreme Court of the United States makes a decision?” he asked, half exasperated.
“I mean, the Supreme Court, two years ago, basically the same members on the Court, allowed Pennsylvania voters to turn their ballots in and be counted late, even though Pennsylvania didn’t even have that on the books as a state law.”
State Sen. Willis Blackshear, D-Dayton, said the latest changes, coming on the heels of several recent election laws, will only breed confusion.
“Just in regard to the grace period,” he said, “we have changed the timeline from 10 days to four days, and now Senate Bill 293 proposes no grace period. Altogether, this bill will further that confusion and make it so more people will have to vote provisionally and risk their vote not being counted.”
State Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, pointed to provisions meant to “clean up” discrepancies in the voter rolls — for instance, if an address or a driver’s license doesn’t match or a person dies.
“There are at least four Kent Smiths that live in Cuyahoga County,” he said. “One of them, I know, has passed away. Do you see what the potential problem can be?”
Senate Republicans brushed off all the objections.
One of the bill’s co-sponsors, state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, reminded his colleagues that voters still have several weeks of early voting and 34 other states impose the same deadline for absentee ballots.
State Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, recalled Election Day being a single day when he started voting in the ’70s and insisted “it’s so easy” to vote early or by mail.
Frustration growing, Johnson rejected the suggestion that the bill is a Republican attempt to suppress the vote.
“I can personally guarantee you, no one on this side of the aisle is trying to suppress the vote. Get a new line. It’s not true. No one believes it anymore,” he barked.
That rang a bit hollow for state Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati. She noted the Ohio House and Senate held several committee hearings on Election Day just a few weeks ago.
This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.