Ohio Voter Registration Initiative (2020)

Ohio Voter Registration Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Elections and campaigns
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin Citizens

The Ohio Voter Registration Initiative was not on the ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.

The initiative would have amended Article V, Section I of the Ohio Constitution to allow for voter registration in person on election day.

On March 2, 2020, the Ohio Ballot Board voted that the Ohio Voting Requirements Initiative, which was filed in January 2020, violated Ohio's single-subject rule and must be divided into four separate initiatives. Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections, who are leading the campaign in support of the amendment, filed four initiatives, including this amendment, that address the four subjects identified in the Board's decision. The three other amendments filed were the Absentee and Early Voting Requirements Initiative, the Disabled Voters Initiative, and the Election Audit Initiative.

A similar measure, Michigan Proposal 3, Voting Policies in State Constitution Initiative, was approved in 2018. The initiated constitutional amendment added eight voting policies to the Michigan Constitution, including straight-ticket voting, automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, and no-excuse absentee voting.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The title for this measure submitted by petitioners was as follows:

“

The Secure and Fair Elections Amendment

”

Ballot summary

The summary for this measure submitted by petitioners was as follows:

“

The Amendment would amend Article V, Section I of the Ohio Constitution to: Remove the provision that citizens be registered to vote for 30 days to be electors, but maintain the requirement to be registered. Provide the following rights to every citizen who is, or is eligible to become, an Ohio elector: The right to be registered to vote upon applying for, renewing, updating, or replacing an Ohio driver's license, learner's permit, or identification card with the agency responsible for issuing these documents, unless the citizen affirmatively states in writing that they do not want to be registered to vote. This provision shall take effect February 1, 2022. The right, during the early voting period and on Election Day, to submit in person a voter registration form and either proof of residency or military ID to an election official at any location where the citizen would otherwise be eligible to vote if they had registered by any other method. This provision shall take effect February 1, 2022. Any one form of ID accepted for voting under Ohio law as of January 1, 2020 shall be sufficient to prove residency for this registration method if it also shows the voter's current address. Persons who register with this method shall be immediately qualified to receive and cast a regular ballot in the election, and the ballot shall be counted unless election administrators demonstrate that the individual is not qualified to vote. This provision shall not limit other rights to register.

”

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Support

Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections led the campaign in support of the initiative.

Supporters

• Ohio Conference of NAACP
• American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio

Opposition

If you are aware of any opponents or opposing arguments, please send an email with a link to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Ohio

In Ohio, the number of signatures required to get an initiated constitutional amendment placed on the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Ohio also requires initiative sponsors to submit 1,000 signatures with the initial petition application. Ohio has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures be gathered from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Petitioners must gather signatures equal to a minimum of half the total required percentage of the gubernatorial vote in each of the 44 counties. Petitions are allowed to circulate for an indefinite period of time. Signatures are due 125 days prior to the general election that proponents want the initiative on.

The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: 443,958 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit the signatures was July 1, 2020.

County boards of elections are responsible for verifying signatures, and the secretary of state must determine the sufficiency of the signature petition at least 105 days before the election. If the first batch of signatures is determined to be insufficient, the petitioners are given a ten-day window to collect more signatures.

Stages of this initiative

• Petitioners filed the initiative with the Ohio Attorney General on March 5, 2020.
• On March 6, 2020, Ohio Attorney General David Yost (R) verified that the summary submitted by petitioners was "fair and truthful" according to state requirements.
• On June 18, 2020, the campaign announced that it was suspending its efforts to put the initiative on the November ballot. Toni Webb, campaign manager for Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections, said, "We end this campaign incredibly proud of everything we have accomplished, including a 6-1 victory at the Ohio Supreme Court finding our initiative qualified as a single issue, and making clear the standard for future ballot measures in Ohio. ... The bottom line is that the COVID-19 pandemic hit right at the beginning of Ohio’s precious signature-gathering months, making it impossible to gather the signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot."

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Elections and campaigns on the ballot

Ohio

• Ohio ballot measures
• Ohio ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Initiative petition full text