by JD Davidson
President Joe Biden will officially be on the general election ballot in Ohio without a national virtual roll call vote, and foreigners cannot finance the state’s election campaigns.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed two bills passed Sunday during last week’s special legislative session. Both contain emergency provisions that allow them to enter into force immediately.
The special session was the state’s first in a decade.
The first amends state campaign finance law to prohibit noncitizens from donating to state ballot campaigns even before the issues to appear on the ballot are approved. It was amended in the House to include a ban on immigrants with a green card from legally staying in the country.
The law also allows Attorney General Dave Yost to review complaints instead of using the state board of elections, which handles all other election-related complaints.
The bill passed both the House and Senate along party lines, with Democrats questioning the ban on foreign money and Yost’s involvement in the investigations.
“Republicans have once again used their gerrymandering majority to attack some of the most sacred fundamental freedoms of Ohioans,” said House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington. “It was never about so-called ‘foreign money’ or about putting President Biden on the ballot. It has always been about extremists’ continued attack on citizen voting initiatives because they didn’t care what the people wanted. Extremists have always only cared about what they want, and all they want is absolute power, regardless of its corrupt costs.”
Secretary of State Frank LaRose called the up-to-date law necessary to close a loophole in state campaign finance law. Foreign money was banned from individual campaigns, but was not banned because of potential problems with ballots.
“I applaud the General Assembly for moving quickly to close this campaign finance loophole,” LaRose said. “The Ohio Constitution expressly prohibits non-citizens from voting in our elections, and foreign billionaires should not be able to finance campaigns to change that very document.”
Last week, the Democratic National Committee announced it plans to hold a virtual roll-call vote to officially nominate Biden as its presidential nominee in order to beat Ohio’s previous Aug. 7 deadline.
Despite the DNC’s change, Ohio lawmakers also passed the measure, and DeWine signed a bill extending the deadline until the scheduled Democratic National Convention, which will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
The up-to-date law extends the deadline only for this year.
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J.D. Davidson is a contributor Central Square.
Photo “Dave Yost” by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Photo “Mike DeWine” by Mike DeWine. Ohio Statehouse cover photo by Ɱ CC BY-SA 4.0.
