{"id":19654,"date":"2026-02-23T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=19654"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:32:08","slug":"aclu-looks-to-dismantle-ohio-election-integrity-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=19654","title":{"rendered":"ACLU Looks to Dismantle Ohio Election Integrity Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(THE DAILY SIGNAL) \u2013 As President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans seek to protect election integrity at the federal level with\u00a0the SAVE America Act, Ohio is fighting its own battle.\n<\/p>\n

Let the IFA community know how to pray for you<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the League of Women Voters of Ohio and CAIR-Northern Ohio, filed a lawsuit against\u00a0Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose\u00a0over the new Ohio election integrity law.\n<\/p>\n

SB 293 was signed into law last December by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and is set to go into effect next month. SB 293 uses citizenship data to purge suspected noncitizens from voter rolls.\n<\/p>\n

But the ACLU claims that the law disenfranchises voters if they are purged from the voter rolls without ample time to correct issues.\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lawsuit the secretary\u2019s office claims is \u201cfrivolous.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFrivolous and unfounded lawsuits are nothing new for these groups. We are confident the legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly complies with federal law,\u201d Ben Kindel, press secretary for LaRose, told The Daily Signal.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSB 293 directs Ohio\u2019s secretary of state to systematically check and compare state voter registration data with the citizenship records of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and the federal\u00a0Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. Individuals flagged under these citizenship-check requirements will have their voter registrations cancelled without prior notice or any opportunity to respond. These purges will take place at least once a month, continuing right up through elections,\u201d\u00a0League of Women Voters Ohio stated in a press release.\n<\/p>\n

League of Women Voters Ohio claims the law is \u201cproblematic\u201d because data is \u201coutdated,\u201d purging goes up to the eve of elections, and the law lacks \u201cenough protection to ensure wrongly removed voters will be able to fix their registration in time to vote.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a green card holder goes through the naturalization process, they\u2019re a citizen, and thus eligible to vote. But if they don\u2019t update their driver\u2019s license\u2014which are valid for four to eight years, and new citizens aren\u2019t required to update\u2014according to the state of Ohio they still look like a noncitizen,\u201d the Ohio Capital Journal\u00a0also explained.\n<\/p>\n

LaRose posted to X on Wednesday urging voters to act promptly if they\u2019re asked to update or verify their information.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of welcoming new voters who have gone to great lengths to participate in our democracy, SB 293 creates an unnecessary, discriminatory hurdle for naturalized citizens to cast their ballots,\u201d said\u00a0Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. \u201cMost Ohioans believe that democracy works best when we can all participate freely and fairly. That\u2019s why we\u2019re headed to court\u2014to ensure that all eligible Ohioans can trust that their registrations won\u2019t be cancelled.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The Daily Signal reached out to plaintiffs and the ACLU but did not receive a response in time.\n<\/p>\n

LaRose and League of Women Voters Ohio were involved in a back and forth over X on Thursday over the concern of noncitizens voting in elections.\n<\/p>\n

Honest Elections Project\u00a0Action\u2019s Vice President Chad Ennis, who provided testimony in favor of SB 293, warned about if plaintiffs should get their way.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit by the League of Women Voters and CAIR is another example of the Left attempting to foil any attempt at cleaning voter rolls. When the government has information from official sources that confirm someone is not a citizen, it would be terrible policy to allow that person to remain on the rolls and vote. But that is exactly what the lawsuit seeks to force Ohio to do,\u201d he told The Daily Signal.\n<\/p>\n

SB 293 includes other provisions. According to the bill\u2019s text, its aim is \u201cto modify the law governing, voter roll maintenance, provisional voting, the return of absent voter\u2019s ballots, and the membership of the Ohio Election Integrity Commission.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The legislation revises the deadline in which absent voter ballots can be returned, eliminating the grace period of four days after Election Day in which\u00a0mail-in ballots\u00a0can arrive.\n<\/p>\n

The law was co-sponsored by state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, who stands by SB 293. \u201cI believe in the legislation I sponsored. While this matter is pending, I won\u2019t be commenting further,\u201d she told The Daily Signal. \u201cI trust the attorney general will be successful and that this law will be fully enacted.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Heritage Action\u2019s Paul Lagemann also testified in support of the bill, focusing on eliminating the grace period. In speaking with The Daily Signal, he shared that voters \u201cshould operate under that standard of having your ballot in on time,\u201d stressing that a \u201cconsistent standard is the way to go.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHeritage has models on several of the issues in the bill, including voter ID and including other issues, such as citizen voting,\u201d Lagemann said regarding other provisions in the bill, including those the lawsuit seeks to address.\n<\/p>\n

While Congress tries to pass the SAVE America Act, which is regarded by Heritage Action as a \u201ckey vote,\u201d Lagemann pointed to how states can also pass their own laws on election integrity. \u201cThe beauty of doing [election integrity] in the states is that we can do it quickly, thoroughly, and in a way that is tailored to the state,\u201d he shared.\n<\/p>\n

Ohio is currently tied at 11th among states in election integrity, according to\u00a0The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Election Integrity Scorecard, along with Mississippi, Texas, and Wisconsin.\n<\/p>\n

How are you praying about the SAVE Act? Share your prayers and scriptures below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published in The Daily Signal.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 4 minutes (THE DAILY SIGNAL) \u2013 As President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans seek to protect election integrity at the federal level with\u00a0the SAVE America Act, Ohio is fighting its own battle. Let the IFA community know how to pray for you.\u00a0 \u00a0 Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3085,6341,1373,1761,1733,6393],"class_list":{"0":"post-19654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-prayer","8":"tag-aclu","9":"tag-dismantle","10":"tag-election","11":"tag-integrity","12":"tag-law","13":"tag-ohio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}