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Committee hears extensive pro and con testimony on SB 153, a broad election bill on citizenship checks, drop boxes and petition rules
Summary
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and proponent groups urged codified citizenship verification, tighter reconciliations for mismatched voter records and a ban on unattended drop boxes; numerous election officials, voting-rights groups and citizen witnesses opposed the bill, warning it would create barriers, increase provisional ballots and strain county boards of elections; no committee vote was taken.
Ohio’s Senate General Government Committee held a fourth hearing on Senate Bill 153, a sweeping elections bill that would require front-end citizenship verification for voter registration, change how mismatched voter records are reconciled, ban unattended drop boxes and tighten petition-circulator rules.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who said he was invited by the bill sponsors to advise on implementation, told the committee the bill addresses three priorities: aligning absentee ballot return rules with perceived federal expectations, closing a ‘‘loophole’’ that lets voters with mismatched registration records continue to request absentee ballots without correcting their records, and codifying ongoing citizenship verifications using federal data sources including the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system. LaRose said the U.S. Department of Justice had contacted…
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