Automatic Voter Registration Proposed In Ohio

CLEVELAND — Ohioans would be automatically registered to vote when they went to the BMV or when they attend public high school under legislation proposed Monday. The new system would also automatically update addresses, unless residents opted out of the program.

“It’s a new decade and Ohio is overdue for this common-sense modern reform,” said Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, who introduced the law. “Ohio’s voter purge has hurt the state’s reputation on the national stage by kicking eligible voters off the rolls. Automated Voter Registration will help repair our reputation and our voter rolls making them more accurate and secure with greater efficiency and at a lower cost to taxpayers. This is a policy that has garnered bipartisan support in the country and here in Ohio and I am confident we can get it done.”

Under current federal law, residents must be offered voter registration whenever they go to the BMV. State law also designates high schools as official voter registration agencies. Both systems operate on an opt-in process, meaning residents must choose to register or update their registration status.

Should Sweeney's legislation become law, the process would become an opt-out, rather than opt-in, system. That means, Ohioans who go to the BMV would have to choose not to be registered to vote.

Similar laws have been passed in 18 other states and in Washington, D.C.

The Automated Voter Registration bill was introduced by Sweeney, a Democrat from Cleveland. The legislation was worked on in a bipartisan working group which included Secretary of State Frank LaRose, State Senator Nathan Manning and State Senator Vernon Sykes.

The legislation would also direct LaRose's office to study whether or not other state agencies could add voter registration systems to their processes.