Voting rights groups sue to stop Ohio’s new voter registration laws

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(The Center Square) – Several voting rights groups sued Friday to stop Ohio’s new voting laws from taking effect.

After sending a letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose last month, asking him to take corrective action on Senate Bill 293, the League of Women Voters of Ohio and CAIR-Northern Ohio filed a federal lawsuit Friday.

The groups, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, the Campaign Legal Center and the ACLU of Ohio, say the new laws violate the National Voter Registration Act and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Among other things, SB293 ended a four-day grace period for mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and created new guidelines for election workers regarding voter registration.

The groups contend the new registration requirements will lead to legal voters being purged from voter rolls.

“Instead of welcoming new voters who have gone to great lengths to participate in our democracy, SB293 creates an unnecessary, discriminatory hurdle for naturalized citizens to cast their ballots,” Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said in a statement. “Most Ohioans believe that democracy works best when we can all participate freely and fairly. That's why we’re headed to court – to ensure that all eligible Ohioans can trust that their registrations won’t be cancelled.”

The law requires LaRose to systematically check and compare state voter registration data with citizenship records of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.

The lawsuit contends that if people are flagged in those checks, their voter registration will be cancelled without prior notice or a chance to respond.

The law requires the purges to take place once a month.

The groups say citizenship data in those systems are outdated, and the state’s new law allows a voter to be removed from rolls the day before an election, violating the federal 90-day quiet period before an election.

“Eligible voters should be encouraged – not burdened – when exercising their fundamental right to vote,” said Caren Short, director of legal and research for the League of Women Voters. “The League is fighting discriminatory laws across the country that target naturalized citizens and other historically disenfranchised communities. These laws only serve to weaken our democracy and erode confidence in our elections.”