Good News: The Ohio legislature is expected to leave soon for a (potentially lengthy) holiday break! Bad News: The Republican Statehouse super majority is trying to rush dozens of dangerous, unpopular bills through the legislative process before they go. There’s a number of bills to deal with.
SB 293 is a voter suppression bill that eliminates Ohio’s long-standing 4-day acceptance window for absentee ballots that were mailed on time and postmarked by the day before Election Day. The bill passed in the Ohio Senate and has its first hearing today in the Ohio House General Government Committee where Rep. Adam Bird is a committee member. Read more here.
SB 153 is Ohio’s version of the federal SAVE ACT, and is scheduled for its sixth hearing later this morning in the Senate’s General Government Committee. If this bill passes out of committee in the Senate and House (HB 233) it will go to a floor vote. Contact Senator Terry Johnson and Reps. Schmidt and Bird and tell them all the reasons they should oppose it, starting with the sponsors’ inability to provide any legitimate evidence of voter fraud.
- require “documentary proof of citizenship.”
- It would force citizens to provide intensive documentation (passport, birth certificate) in order to register to vote/update voter registration.
- Bans all ballot drop boxes, even the ones outside your county Board of Elections.
- Attacks Ohio’s citizen-led ballot initiative process in multiple ways.
Read more about this dangerous legislation here.
