Photo identification is required on Election Day in Ohio, and it has been since 2023, but state GOP leaders say the law they fought to get to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk three years ago isn’t enough.
The two men in charge of the Ohio House and Senate want voters to decide whether to codify existing ID requirements in the state constitution this November.
“Fundamental rights and requirements should be in the Constitution, and this is very fundamental,” House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) told reporters Wednesday.
Ohio voters have the final say over how the constitution gets amended. The question likely to go before them is if photo ID should be required to vote in person, early or at the polls. Under existing law, Ohioans generally need a state driver’s license or ID card, a United States passport or passport card or a military ID to do so.
The effort does not address mail-in voting, which carries less stringent ID requirements. An unrelated effort, House Bill 577, would change those, but it has not made it beyond committee.
“The question about absentee or mail-in voting is going to be a question the legislature is going to have conversations on into the future,” Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) told reporters Wednesday.
Regardless, the resolutions are likely to move fast. Those concurrent measures, House Joint Resolution 9 and Senate Joint Resolution 10, were only introduced Monday but could get votes as soon as June 10, McColley said. Sixty lawmakers in the House and 20 in the Senate would need to vote for them.
It all comes within days of McColley’s running mate, gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, calling for constitutionally required voter identification requirements. McColley said Wednesday the effort is not “a turnout juicer, or anything like that.”
Some Democrats in the legislature disagreed.
“They’re worried,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) told reporters Wednesday. “They don’t believe they can win without doing something extraordinary to change the way we vote.”
In 2025, Pew Research Center found that more than 80% of Americans proponents of photo ID proposals.
