Two left-leaning groups have sued Ohio over a new law that requires clerks at the BMV to conduct citizenship checks on customers before offering them a chance to register to vote.
The lawsuit says the new law violates the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to offer voter registration forms at the BMV and at public benefits offices. The federal law, signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, also created a standard voter registration process, including a standard national form.
“Ohio is not free to impose an additional requirement for voter registration when that requirement conflicts with federal law,” reads the lawsuit. It was filed Friday by Red Wine & Blue, a political advocacy group founded in Ohio that targets suburban women, and the Ohio Alliance for Retired American, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the labor union.
In a statement on Monday, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said it’s “common sense” that only U.S. citizens should appear on voter rolls.
“I won’t apologize for, or back down from the work we do to ensure the integrity of our voter rolls,” said LaRose, a Republican.
After this story published, LaRose’s office offered additional comments. It said BMV officials previously have given only eligible voters a chance to register to vote, describing the new law as making an existing practice part of permanent law.
The lawsuit, meanwhile, describes registration at the BMV as previously involving someone simply filling out a form and checking a box to indicate whether or not they’re a citizen. LaRose’s office called this an inaccurate description.
Officials at the BMV, meanwhile, have declined to comment for this story, citing the lawsuit.
More on the new law
For years, Ohio has given its BMV customers a chance to register to vote. BMV offices also make available to the general public a stack of voter registration forms, which contain a box where someone can mark whether or not they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.
Republican lawmakers inserted into this year’s transportation budget bill, which funds the state’s roads and bridges network, a provision that requires BMV clerks to check citizenship status of customers before offering them the chance to register.
The new law took effect in late June.
The BMV already collects information on drivers’ residency status, since only citizens or permanent legal residents can get a driver’s license. Applicants must provide documents proving their full legal name, place of birth, current address and U.S. legal status. A citizen born in the U.S. could provide their birth certificate and a paystub, for example.
The new law requires BMV clerks to check internal records to see if someone previously has provided proof of citizenship. If they have, the clerk can offer the customer a voter registration form.
This week, LaRose said the law only made permanent what BMV clerks already had been doing.
But the new lawsuit describes the new law as a completely new requirement. It says someone who hadn’t previously provided citizenship documents could still register to vote at the BMV. But they would have to produce extra documents that may not be readily available.
The groups called the requirement an illegal burden that could screen out eligible voters. They said the new requirement is particularly burdensome to women, since they are more likely to have changed their last name after getting married, making it less likely their current legal name matches the name on their birth certificate.
They also say the new law illegally treats different groups of voters differently, since people registering to vote through other methods – like by using the state’s online process – aren’t required to provide documents proving their citizenship. They can just check the form, which states lying about eligibility to vote is a felony.
Finally, the groups say Ohio failed to offer any evidence that the old way of doing things was failing to screen out illegal voters. For instance, Attorney General Dave Yost in October indicted six non-citizens for illegally voting – which the lawsuit describes as a “handful” of instances out of the millions of votes that are cast in Ohio every major election.
Red Wine & Blue founder Katie Paris told Signal in a statement on Monday that her group sued to protect the voting rights of its members “because we all deserve to have a voice in our government.”
“Frank LaRose and Republicans in the state legislature should not be able to disenfranchise anyone, especially not the rural Ohioans, elderly voters, students, and women who have changed their legal names through marriage and divorce who are disproportionately affected by this legislation,” Paris said.
The legal process
The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. Northern District of Ohio on Friday and asks the court to strike down the new law as unconstitutional.
Court records show the case has been assigned to Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., who was appointed to the court by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Two prominent Democratic elections law firms – McTigue and Colombo in Columbus and the Elias Law Group in Washington, D.C., are representing the plaintiffs in the case. They have sued the state over numerous elections-related laws in recent years, compiling a mix of legal successes and defeats.
The story was updated to include comments from LaRose’s office that were offered after the story first published. Those comments include the office’s contention that the lawsuit’s description of the BMV voter process is inaccurate.