Statehouse considers changes to voting laws

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- With the 2026 midterms a year away, legislation is moving through the Ohio Statehouse that could change how Ohioans register to vote and cast their ballots.

One such measure under consideration is Senate Bill 293, passed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday afternoon. 

S.B. 293 would require mail-in absentee ballots to be returned to county boards of elections on or before Election Day—eliminating the four-day period after Election Day when mail-in ballots can still be counted under current law.

The bill’s sponsor, Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), said this is not unusual in other states. 

“Two-thirds of the country require their ballots to be due on or before Election Day, and this puts Ohio in line with those,” said Gavarone. “We have 28 days of early voting, and we've been really encouraging people to get out and vote early. We want to make sure everyone is aware and certainly encourage people, if they're going to use the Postal Service, to get their ballots in as early as possible.”

Jen Miller, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said the bill would prevent some Ohioans from having their ballots counted—particularly older voters, rural voters, and voters with disabilities.

“Early voting and absentee voting become more and more popular over the years and it’s especially needed for senior citizens, people with disabilities, active duty military, folks who work during the day who can’t get to the board of elections office during business hours,” said Miller. “A wide range of Ohioans are using these methods of voting.”

S.B. 293 is just one of many election integrity bills sponsored by Gavarone. She has also put forward S.B. 4, which would create an election integrity unit in the Secretary of State’s office, and S.B. 153, which would require verification of U.S. citizenship whenever someone registers, or reregisters, to vote in Ohio. 

“When it comes to non-citizens registering to vote, we want to make sure that we're catching that on the front end,” said Gavarone. “What would happen is when you register to vote, it would be checked. When you update your registration, if you get married or for whatever other reason, change your name, everything would be verified then. But on top of that, everyone's citizenship is verified on a monthly basis.” 

Gavarone said most of the time, this verification would be done by cross-referencing voter registrations with government databases like those used by the BMV or Social Security. 

Election officials agree that voter fraud in Ohio is exceedingly rare. Miller argued that the legislature’s focus on election integrity is therefore unnecessary, and called the push against voter fraud “fear-mongering.” 

“The idea of fraud fear-mongering is that we need to do things differently to elections because fraud is a major problem. In fact, we know it's not,” said Miller. “So many of our leaders, Republican and Democrat, continue to tout the security and trustworthiness of our elections. And so this idea that we need to change elections because of fraud is nothing but fear-mongering.”

Miller also said the legislature’s rhetoric regarding voter fraud might contribute to public distrust, as well as a contentious climate around elections. 

“Poll workers, election officials, voters, campaigners, candidates, we should be doing everything we can to protect them, and that actually starts by changing our rhetoric,” said Miller. “The more we talk about this nonexistent fraud, and the less we demystify all the ways that our elections are secure and run by public servants, we are raising the likelihood of threats or violence.” 

Gavarone acknowledged the increasing challenges faced by poll workers. She and Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) have co-sponsored a bill to clarify that poll workers are not public officials and therefore not subject to public records laws that might expose personal information. 

“We’ve certainly seen cases across the country of escalated violence in the political world,” said Gavarone. “I mean, these people are administering our elections, and we need to make sure we're doing what we can so that they can do their job without fear of violence. If we can do something like this, maybe shield their address from the public, make them a little safer, I think it's it's going to be a win all around.”

Gavarone argued, however, that election integrity bills like the ones she has sponsored serve to increase public trust in the electoral system. 

“Even one case of voter fraud is too many,” said Gavarone. “We've had a number of elections, one right in my hometown, Wood County, where a race came down to the exact same number of votes…So one case of voter fraud could have changed the outcome of that election. So we need to make sure that we're vigilant in always checking things out.” 

Having passed the Senate, S.B. 293 will now go to the House of Representatives for consideration. The Senate passed S.B. 4 over the summer, and S.B. 153 remains in the House General Government Committee.