A law that requires Ohioans prove their citizenship when registering to vote at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is being challenged in federal court. It claims that provision of the transportation budget, which took effect in June, violates the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter Law.
"Ohio law now requires that an applicant provide unspecified, additional 'proof of United States citizenship' before they are offered the opportunity to register to vote at the BMV," the lawsuit said. "Ohio is not free to impose an additional requirement for voter registration when that requirement conflicts with federal law."
The suit was filed against Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Ohio's Registrar of Motor Vehicles Charles Norman by Red, Wine & Blue, a national left-leaning group aimed at suburban women. The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans is also a plaintiff. The groups are represented by Columbus-based election law attorney Don McTigue and by Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who's filed dozens of election-related lawsuits across the country.
The suit claims that the law will make registering to vote or updating registration difficult for women whose marital status has changed, for new residents, and for anyone who doesn't have easy access to citizenship documents.
The lawsuit also said citizenship documents are only required when registering in person. If a voter registers online, they only need to submit a sworn statement saying they're a citizen. LaRose’s spokesman said in an email that’s not true. The office checks new registrations to see if proof was provided at the BMV, and if not, a message is displayed that the person trying to register is ineligible.
"All the studies that have looked at this, and even politicians in our own state have looked really closely at this, and what they found again and again and again is that it is not a problem," said Red Wine & Blue founder Katie Paris, a native of Northeast Ohio. "In 2024, over six million Ohio voters cast a vote. At the end of the day, they found six people where there was a problem. I can't even count as low as the small of a percentage that is of happening."
A total of 597 suspected cases of voter fraud were referred for prosecution in August 2024. That set off a dispute between LaRose and county prosecutors, who said most of the cases couldn't be prosecuted. Two weeks before the 2024 general election, LaRose and Attorney General Dave Yost announced that six people had been indicted for illegal voting going back to 2008. One of those named in the announcement, Ramesh Patel, died in 2022.
In June, LaRose announced he was referring evidence of 30 voter registrations by noncitizens for prosecution, as well as evidence of double-voting by 11 people who weren't Ohioans. It's unclear whether these were recorded in 2024 or also included previous elections.
"I won’t apologize for, or back down from the work we do to ensure the integrity of our voter rolls. We will win this case – just like we’ve fought off the other baseless actions that such groups have brought against us," LaRose said in a statement. "This is just the latest attempt by activists to cause chaos in Ohio’s election system. They continuously force their bad policies through the courts instead of through legislation."
"There has been chaos caused in our voting system in this state," Paris said. "And I hate to say it, but it's because Frank LaRose has been making it harder for people to vote, including with these last-minute purges, where people show up at the polls, they think they're all set to vote, then they're told they've got to go home, that they can't. This is chaotic."
An amendment approved by voters in 2022 states only citizens can vote in Ohio.
Democratic state lawmakers spoke out against the proof of citizenship provision when the transportation budget was being debated earlier this year. But it passed with only three no votes in the House, all from Republicans.
