SB 293 was signed into law in 2025 and became effective as of March 20, 2026. The bill as first introduced in the legislature only imposed mail-in ballot deadline restrictions, but was amended by the House of Representatives to include documentary proof of citizenship requirements, which were quickly adopted by the Senate.
SB 293 creates an onerous citizenship checks process that makes it harder to stay registered to vote, especially for naturalized citizens or anyone who doesn’t have ready access to citizenship documents when they get their driver’s license. The bill also restricts the ability of Ohioans to vote by mail by eliminating the four-day grace period after Election Day for mail-in ballots to be delivered to the board of elections.
The voting process in Ohio was already safe and secure before this law passed. State legislators should be focused on making it easier for eligible Ohio citizens to cast their ballots but are instead trying to use their power to complicate the process and silence voters.
Under this law, the Secretary of State’s office is required to perform a monthly check of voter records against government databases that have been proven likely to have outdated citizenship information to identify alleged noncitizens, and use that information to cancel voter registrations of people who cannot provide documents like a passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship.
Moreover, these provisions require documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) if the voter registers to vote with an Ohio ID or driver’s license as voter ID that has the non-citizen notation on it, or tries to use such ID when voting. (Since the implementation of HB 458 in Spring 2023, all Ohio driver’s license and ID holders must provide DPOC at the time of application/renewal or their license/ID will be given the notation “noncitizen”).
In recent elections, the United State Postal Service as well as state and local election officials have repeatedly warned that thousands of ballots would not arrive by Election Day because USPS has lacked the capacity to meet reasonable delivery expectations. This is still the case as postal delays remain a persistent, nationwide problem.
In Ohio alone, more than 9,500 ballots were received during the four-day post-election window in 2024. Each of these ballots was properly completed, postmarked on time, and mailed before the legal deadline by an eligible Ohio voter. Had SB 293 been the law in 2024, these 9,500 U.S. citizens who were eligible to vote in Ohio and cast their ballots before the election would have been disenfranchised solely due to postal delivery times beyond their control.
This grace period also builds trust in our election system. Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans trust that their mail-in ballots will be counted. Of the more than 2.6 million Ohioans who voted before Election Day last November, 803,253 (31%) voters placed their trust in the US Postal Service as their preferred method of ballot return. Disqualifying the ballots of thousands of eligible voters who reasonably expect to rely on USPS in future elections would gravely undermine this public trust.
Under this new law, college students in Ohio are disproportionately impacted. Students often rely on our postal system to receive and cast their ballots and are less likely to have documentary proof of citizenship documents readily available.
Women who have changed their name after getting married
Transgender people who have changed their name
Newly naturalized citizens who may still show up as noncitizens in some outdated databases
Rural voters face longer and less frequent mail delivery routes
Seniors and Ohioans with disabilities, for whom voting by mail is often the only accessible option
Voters without reliable transportation, including students and low-income Ohioans, who frequently depend on the mail to cast their ballots
Learn everything you need to know to cast your ballot by Election Day in Ohio:
November 5, 2025
November 21, 2025
Increasing access to pre-Election Day voting opportunities like by-mail voting is a top priority of the Fair Elections Center’s Voting Rights Project. Read more about our policy priorities here.
OH SB 153/HB 233 would require documentary proof of citizenship, along with other sweeping changes to election code like banning the use of drop boxes and requiring multiple forms of identification to match your voter registration. The bill would also drastically change the process for citizen-led ballot initiatives.
Last updated: April 23, 2026