Over the past decade, Ohio Republicans have worked hard to make Ohio anti-voter and anti-democracy by using tactics such as purging voter rolls and gerrymandering legislative maps. After the Supreme Court’s partisan gerrymandering decision, Ohioans will again vote under an unfair, undemocratic, discriminatory legislative map in 2020. This should be the last time the GOP is able to steal legislative seats in Ohio because Ohio citizens voted to establish an independent commission for redistricting in 2021. 

Overall, 2019 has been a slow year for voting rights legislation in Ohio. Ohio Democrats introduced legislation to improve election security by requiring paper ballots be used (HB 204). Ohio Republicans did try to expand the voter IDs allowed under Ohio’s restrictive voter ID laws by allowing voters to use concealed handgun licenses (HB 49).

New Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose has stated that he supports making registering to vote and voting easier for Ohioans. Larose says that he supports automatic voter registration amongst other initiatives. However, Larose also says that he plans to continue Ohio’s anti-voter roll purges. Larose did not get any actual policies proposed this session