COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Senate has passed a resolution that would put an amendment on the November ballot, one to require voters to show photo ID at the polls. The proposal would enshrine already existing state law into the Constitution.
Statehouse Republicans want to take voter photo ID a step further, putting a question on the November ballot to put the current voter ID law into the state constitution. The legislation is proposed as Senate Joint Resolution 10 and House Joint Resolution 9.
"This will be, if not the strongest, one of the strongest election integrity, voter identification, photo identification measures," Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said.
RELATED: Republicans deny ‘juicing’ votes as they attempt to put already existing law on midterm ballot
S.J.R. 10 passed the Senate 22-9, with state Sen. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield) joining the Democrats. He said it didn't go far enough.
A future general assembly could reverse the law, unless it's in the constitution, McColley said. Photo ID for voting went into effect in 2023.
"Provide for the long-term security of our elections while maintaining access to the ballot box," state Sen. Jane Timken (R-North Canton) said.
To be clear, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Ohio, even when photo ID wasn't the law. Thousands of audits have proven that.
Democrats say that this is an effort to increase Republican turnout in the midterms, one that strategists say will be better for Democrats than 2024.
"This is a purely political, poorly written resolution," state Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) said while speaking on the floor.
It's not the first time the GOP has put on a "ballot juicer," some opponents said. In 2022, another midterm year, Republicans put a proposal on the ballot that bans noncitizens from voting in all Ohio elections. Noncitizens already couldn't vote in state or federal elections.
"They think this is going to get their voters out to vote," DeMora added. "I think that they're wrong."
Conservative activists don't like the resolution either, many testified.
"The amendment's fatal flaw is that it fails to provide comparable safeguards to the 20% who vote by mail," Butler County resident Gail Niederlehner said.
She is against the proposal because she said it doesn’t do anything for actual election integrity, which, to her, is requiring photo ID for absentee ballots.
The Senate version does not require photo ID for absentee ballots; however, it allows it as an option. For this reason, Cutrona voted against the resolution.
The language of the amendment says: "At a minimum, and in accordance with laws passed by the general assembly, electors shall provide photo identification or, if authorized by law, a signature and at least one other unique identifier in order to vote by any other method authorized by law." The latter portion is already in the existing state law.
It is unclear if a photo ID requirement will be added to the amendment when it moves to the House.
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