ACLU, others challenge Ohio election law; LaRose confident

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(The Center Square) – A series new Ohio election laws aimed at removing non-citizens from voting roles violates federal law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and other groups said Thursday.

Senate Bill 293, signed into law last month, orders the Ohio secretary of state to complete

“comparison checks” of the state’s voter registration list with state and federal records to identify possible non-citizens .

“Voters with mismatched data must correct any information prior to voting or else they will be required to use a provisional ballot,” the ACLU said in a news release.

The new law violates the National Voter Registration Act, the ACLU said.

“SB 293 puts naturalized citizens' right to vote at risk by expanding flawed citizenship verification schemes that have a documented history of error," Davin Rosborough, deputy director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project said in a statement. "When eligible voters are wrongly flagged, the NVRA requires states to protect voters, especially during its quiet period when last-minute purges are prohibited precisely to prevent this kind of chaos and disenfranchisement.”

Ohio’s new law “ignores those safeguards and will likely result in qualified voters being stripped of their registration before an election,” the ACLU said. “That is not election integrity. It is voter suppression.”

The groups urged the Secretary of State Frank LaRose to” swiftly correct" the violations.

“Should no action be taken in the appropriate timeframe, the organizations stand by to pursue any and all options, including litigation,” the ACLU said.

LaRose’s office received the letter Thursday, his spokesman Ben Kindal told TCS.

“While our legal team reviews the concerns stated in the letter we received today, we are confident the legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly complies with federal law,” Kindle said.

In addition to the ACLU, the League of Women Voters of Ohio and Council on American-Islamic Relations-Northern Ohio.

The next federal election in Ohio are primary elections May 5.

Under a federal law, civil legal actions, such as a request for an injunction, are allowed if  the election is less than 120 days away and the alleged violation is not corrected within 20 days after election officials are notified, the letter states.