Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected a summary language of a proposed amendment this week that would have made changes to Ohio’s election laws.
The Secure and Fair Elections Amendment (SFEA) advocated for same day registration by removing provisions that require electors be registered for 30 days before voting.
Furthermore, this amendment sought add rules that allowed Ohioans to be registered to vote when they apply, renew or replace their driver’s license.
However, Yost dismissed the petition because the proposed amendment summary was longer than the amendment itself, and the summary included a “paragraph of text that is not included in the proposed amendment.”
“For these reasons, I am unable to certify the proposal,” Yost said in his rejection letter.
ACLU of Ohio, who backed this proposed amendment, said this setback will not stop them from trying to “secure” voting rights for all Ohioans.
“This is standard practice in Ohio on the path to qualify for the ballot. We remain committed to protecting and ensuring the right to vote for all eligible Ohioans, and we will be refiling the initiative before the deadline,” ACLU Executive Director J Bennett Guess said.
“We’re continuing to expand our coalition and are thrilled by this week’s endorsements from the Ohio Conference of the NAACP and the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute to modernize Ohio’s elections to ensure they are both secure and fair,” he added.
Backers of SEFA can resubmit their proposed amendment, but they will have to gather another 1,000 signatures from registered Ohioans.
If SEFA is eventually approved by Yost and the Ohio Ballot Board, it would have to gather 442,958 voter signatures by July 1 to get on this year’s November ballot.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
Background Photo “Voting Booth” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
