Ohio Senate advances photo voter ID amendment measure

The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to put a constitutional amendment before voters requiring photo ID to vote. Senators introduced the resolution just two weeks ago. A companion proposal in the House is getting similar fast-track treatment.

If at least 60% of Ohio House members sign off, voters will weigh the proposal this November.

Speaking after the vote, Senate President Rob McColley, predicted the easy passage if it makes it to the ballot.

“It’s going to be very well supported by the voters,” McColley said, “and I expect that it will pass overwhelmingly, because this is the type of protection that voters want to see in the system.

Although photo voter ID is extremely popular, the last-minute amendment push is a head-scratcher for some. Critics contend Republicans are advancing the amendment to boost turnout in an unfavorable election cycle. Republican leaders deny that’s the case.

The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from different sides of the electoral policy debate.

Voting rights advocates note the proposal only reiterates state law. Nothing about the current voting process would change if the amendment were to pass. But the amendment would make future changes harder, and by leaving out a statutory provision guaranteeing a free ID card, the proposal might draw legal challenges as a poll tax.

Meanwhile, Ohioans pushing for greater restrictions on voting oppose the amendment because it doesn’t go far enough. They’re calling for legislation requiring absentee voters to include a photocopy of their ID along with their ballot, and worry the amendment could scuttle that effort.

They’ve urged lawmakers to amend the resolution to extend photo ID requirements to absentee ballot. Lawmakers have largely balked at the idea — what good is a photo ID if you don’t have the voter standing in front of you?

In committee and on the Senate floor, Democrats offered a flurry of amendments of their own. Why not expand the list of acceptable documents or explicitly allow lawmakers to update the list? Couldn’t the amendment leave room for future electronic forms of ID? How about including a provision to ensure Ohioans can get a free ID card? Perhaps most significant, if state law requires an unexpired, government issued ID, why not allow same day voter registration?

The GOP-majority committee tabled each one in turn.

Floor debate

The resolution’s sponsors defended their proposal as a way to ensure “the longterm security of our elections,” and ensure “a government-issued photo ID is the default in Ohio elections.” Ohio state Sen. Jane Timken, R-North Canton, pointed to Virginia as “a cautionary tale.”

“After several years of operation, surviving judicial challenges, Virginia repealed its photo ID requirements in 2020 after a single seat in the General Assembly flipped,” Timken said. “And this was despite being overwhelmingly supported by the voters.”

Although Virginia does allow voters to prove their identity with documents like a utility bill or a bank statement, most voters still show a photo ID. A 2021 review of several large localities by The Virginia Mercury showed only about .05% of voters cast a ballot without showing an ID.

Ohio state Sen. Willis Blackshear, D-Dayton, criticized Republicans for turning down Democrats’ amendments.

“The general response was, well, those provisions are already in statute,” he said. “Well, photo ID’s already in statute. So then the question becomes, if we believe photo ID is important enough to enshrine in the Constitution, then why not include those protections?”

Ohio state Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, said the election security concerns behind the GOP’s push for ever more stringent election policies are bogus. Since 2008, he said, 22 million people have voted in the state, but there have been just 18 charges of voter fraud in the same timeframe.

“Phony voting just is not happening very much at all in the state of Ohio,” he said. “In-person voter fraud is less common than UFO sightings, or more importantly, Bigfoot sightings in Portage County.”

Senate passage & next steps

The resolution advanced easily, 22 to 9, but Republican support wasn’t universal.

Ohio state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said he’d prefer to include photo ID requirements for absentee voters, but he decided support the measure anyway. Brenner compared the resolution’s incremental progress to Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes’ “three yards and a cloud of dust.”

President McColley insisted the amendment “leaves the door open” for future legislatures to make changes like a requiring photo ID for absentee voting. But Ohio state Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, couldn’t get past his reservations.

“When you mail in your ballot, you should have to have some type of form of ID. Unfortunately, I don’t see that here, and that raises major concerns for me,” he said. “I think this is creating a loophole within our own constitution if this is indeed passed.”

Cutrona said he’d urge House members to “strengthen” the resolution’s provisions.

The House committee hearing the companion measure, House Joint Resolution 9, has yet to advance the proposal. Some committee members, including the chair, Ohio state Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, have expressed skepticism about a photo ID requirement for absentee ballots.