A poll worker demonstrates security steps for handling ballots. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
Ohio senators voted Wednesday to require absentee ballots to arrive at county boards of elections before Election Day and be counted. The change means a further shortening of the return deadline for each subsequent federal election.
In 2024, ballots mailed the day before the election had four days to be delivered. In 2022, properly mailed ballots had 10 days to arrive.
Thirty-four other states require voters to return absentee ballots by Election Day, but the push to pass Ohio Senate Bill 293 is due in part to threats from the Trump administration.
In March executive orderthe president reinterpreted federal laws setting the election date, declaring ballots received after Election Day invalid.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose told state senators that the U.S. Department of Justice has already warned his office of a potential lawsuit.
Notably, just last week, a federal judge rejected a related claim about federal power in elections.
Ruling under the same order, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the Trump administration did not have the authority to require voters to provide proof of citizenship.
Returning to the framers, she wrote: “States initially have the authority to regulate elections. Congress has oversight authority over these laws. The president does not appear at all.”
In a speech after the committee hearing, state Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, acknowledged that federal pressure was vital but urged lawmakers to introduce the bill because “it’s the right thing to do.”
She also dismissed complaints about the postponement of deadlines.
“Voters are smart and pick up on these changes,” she said.
“They will find new polling places as they change, and as the dates change, they will adjust as well.”
The commission refused
League of Women Voters of Ohio executive director Jen Miller said shortening the deadline for returning ballots would not improve election security.
“It simply puts more barriers to voting and penalizes the hardworking Ohioans who pay taxes for something that is out of control: the speed of the Postal Service.”
Absentee ballots are often the most accessible choice for voters with disabilities, seniors and active-duty military, Miller said. They also offer flexibility for Ohioans who work normal business hours, she added.
But federal cost cutting has slowed mail delivery.
In several parts of Ohio, Miller said, mail leaves the state for processing before delivery.
“In every election, we have ballots that were sometimes mailed two or three weeks before Election Day that didn’t arrive until the next day,” she said. “That should count.”
And she added that nothing is lost if time is allowed for the ballots to be delivered; County boards process provisional ballots for four days after the election.
Collin Marozzi of the ACLU of Ohio criticized lawmakers for responding to the Trump administration’s threats.
“It cannot be overstated how inappropriate it is for a federal official with no constitutional authority to regulate elections to threaten states through the Department of Justice,” Marozzi said.
“At best,” he added, “it is an insult to federalism, and at worst, political coercion.”
Debate in the Senate
One of the bill’s sponsors, state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, offered a different explanation.
She said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Republicans last year in challenging a Mississippi law that allowed ballots to be returned up to five days after Election Day.
The justices found that federal statute sets a date “by which ballots must consist of both votes to throw by voters and received by government officials.”
Gavarone emphasized that voters have one more month to vote early in person or by mail.
“This bill does not change early voting,” she said. “Ohioans have the right to vote. We want all valid votes to count, and that process must be done on Election Day.”
Its co-sponsor, state Sen. Andrew Brenner of Delaware, cited that all 34 states that require mail-in ballots should arrive by Election Day.
“So before we hear that this is once again taking away people’s rights, it’s not,” Brenner insisted.
State Sen. Bill DeMora, R-Columbus, said relying on an increasingly unreliable postal system is unfair to voters.
He described how, more than two weeks ago, one of his employees requested an absentee ballot in connection with Tuesday’s election.
She still didn’t show up and couldn’t vote.
He added that in the last election, almost 10,000 ballots arrived in the four days after Election Day.
“Ten thousand eligible voters who followed all the rules, who cast their ballots on time, and who did everything the law required of them would have had their votes stolen because of the mail,” DeMora said.
He also rejected Republicans’ reliance on the Fifth Circuit – “the craziest circuit on federal court” – to justify the change.
“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction over the state of Ohio,” DeMora said. “None.”
The decision passed, with all but one Republican voting in favor of the change.
In a speech after the vote, Senate President Rob McColley downplayed the risk of voter confusion by again changing the deadline for returning ballots.
“I think most voters, if you asked them right now, and there were 100 of us here, and they said, raise your hand if you think your ballot needs to be cast by Election Day, I imagine the vast majority of them would raise their hand,” he said.
Minority Leader Nickie Antonio actually agreed with his assessment, but added: “The point is, we have to trust the U.S. Postal Service, which has been attacked for lack of funding, lack of staff, and making it complicated to do business.”
Follow Ohio Capital Journal reporter Nick Evans on X Or on Bluesky.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
