Gov. Mike DeWine has vetoed a new Republican-passed bill that would have required Ohioans to show a photo ID to vote by mail.
DeWine announced late Wednesday that he had vetoed House Bill 472, which expanded the strict photo ID requirement Ohio has had for voting since 2023.
The Republican governor issued an unusually lengthy statement explaining his decision. He said the requirement would pose an unwieldy challenge for voters without providing any real benefit.
“This bill is not needed, because Ohio does an excellent job running elections,” DeWine said. “We know who wins on election night and not weeks later!”
In vetoing the bill, DeWine noted complaints from bipartisan elections officials, who said lawmakers passed the bill too quickly during a busy legislative session earlier this month, as well as from the Ohio chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons. Republicans unveiled the photo ID requirement for mailing as an amendment to an unrelated bill and then passed it two days later in a late-night vote.
With his veto, DeWine followed through on comments he made in 2023, urging lawmakers to pass no more new voting restrictions after calling elections security a “settled issue.”
Republican lawmakers passed HB 472 earlier this month alongside another voter ID measure – one that would amend Ohio’s constitution to require voters to show a photo ID to vote in person, while giving lawmakers leeway to require it for other forms of voting, too.
Voters have to approve the voter ID amendment. A statewide vote will happen in November.
The veto doesn’t affect the amendment, since under state law, governors have no role in sending proposed constitutional amendments to voters.
Republican lawmakers still could overturn DeWine’s veto if they can garner enough votes in the Ohio House and Senate before the end of the year. The veto-overturn process would start in the House, where Republicans hold 65 seats – five more than the 60 votes needed to overturn a veto.
Currently, the legislature has no scheduled sessions until after the November election.
What the bill would have done
Republicans described HB 472 as a common-sense election security measure. They said Ohioans support photo ID requirements for voting, and said that mail voting shouldn’t be exempt.
The bill offered a few ways for voters to show a photo ID while voting remotely.
One option is a new online portal that would allow Ohioans to request a mail ballot online, ditching a longstanding process that involves filling out a paper form.
While details would have to be hashed out by state elections officials, the bill allows Ohioans to submit a picture of their photo ID and a photo of their face when using the portal. They could also provide an alternative form of ID – like the last four digits of their driver’s license number – but would have to later enclose a copy of their photo ID with their completed mail ballot.
Someone who doesn’t want to mail or digitally send their ID could physically bring it to a county board of elections office in accordance with the bill.
In his veto message, DeWine called the process of showing a photo ID remotely unworkable, even as he praised the part of the bill that would have allowed Ohioans to apply for an absentee ballot through an online form.
Elections officials complained about these new requirements, saying that even with more than a year to plan, they wouldn’t have enough time to set up the new system.
They also raised privacy concerns about a new government agency maintaining a file of photos of voter and copies of their IDs. In response, lawmakers amended the bill to specify the new photo records are exempt from disclosure under public records law.
Certain categories of voters were exempt from the photo ID requirements under the bill: those with “sincere religious objections,” military members and other overseas Ohioans, people with a severe medical condition or disability, or those who were incarcerated. A last-minute change also exempted those with a “lack of mobility” or “another material obstacle” that prevents them from either getting a photo ID or a photocopy of their ID.
These exempt voters would be allowed to provide other personal identifying information instead.
Democrats, voting-rights groups complained the bill impedes voting
HB 472 passed earlier this month along party lines, getting no Democratic votes.
During debate, Democrats called the bill rushed. They also renewed their previous criticisms of voter ID requirements, calling them an impediment to voting, especially for senior citizens and people who change addresses more frequently, like students or lower-income people. They said mail-in voting is secure and doesn’t require new security measures.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a prominent liberal group that’s currently facing scrutiny by the FBI, held a rally outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, urging DeWine to veto the bill.
Diedra Reese, the OOC’s director of voter engagement, in an interview hours before DeWine’s veto called the bill an effort by Republicans to prevent people from voting.
“He’s on record having said that he doesn’t think we need more election laws,” Reese said of DeWine. “Our Secretary of State says we have safe and secure elections. If they are not the ones who should be standing up, who then? And again, that’s certainly why we’re out here today.”
Following DeWine’s veto, Ohio League of Women Voters Executive Director Jen Miller praised the governor’s decision.
“Ohio’s absentee voting system is secure and preferred by countless senior citizens, people with disabilities and college students from across the political spectrum. We commend Governor DeWine for his wise veto of hastily written legislation that would have surely backfired. Because of his leadership, elections officials won’t have to face another unfunded mandate, and Ohioans can continue to freely and fairly vote absentee,” Miller said.
Republicans criticize DeWine
DeWine’s veto drew swift criticism from Rob McColley, the Republican leader of the Ohio Senate and running mate for GOP governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in the November election.
McColley said photo ID laws are supported by the “vast majority of voters.”
“It is disappointing the governor would oppose such a common sense election security bill when Democrat controlled states such as Virginia and Hawaii have repealed their photo ID laws. HB 472 when combined with this fall’s Constitutional Amendment requiring photo identification to vote would have given Ohioans the confidence to know that their election system was the most secure in the country,” McColley said.
State Treasurer Robert Sprague, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State, issued a statement calling DeWine’s veto “disappointing.”
“Photo ID is a common sense, commonplace requirement in everyday life and the most trustworthy means of ensuring that a person is who they say they are. The legislation would have served as a significant deterrent to mail-in voter fraud and made Ohio elections more secure, which is the point,” Sprague said.
The political context
During a busy legislative session earlier this month, Republicans added the photo ID requirements to a noncontroversial bill that otherwise provides free IDs and other government documents to people experiencing homelessness.
The bill passed as Republican legislative leaders were looking for votes for the voter ID amendment. Some GOP holdouts and conservative critics had contended the amendment didn’t go far enough since it didn’t explicitly address mail-in voting.
This story was originally published by Signal Ohio and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
