News

Voter rights groups want to ensure naturalized citizens in Ohio aren’t turned away from the polls

By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Wednesday, October 23, 2024

< < Back to

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Some representing voters fear naturalized citizens who have a right to vote are being denied that opportunity because of the state’s year-old law requiring photo identification.

The ACLU of Ohio, the National ACLU, All Voting is Local, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Common Cause Ohio and the League of Women Voters of Ohio sent a letter to Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, asking him to take action to make sure naturalized citizens are allowed to cast ballots.

Legal director of the ACLU of Ohio Freda Levenson said the requirement to present a valid photo ID when voting in person can be a problem for those who haven’t updated their driver’s licenses since becoming naturalized citizens.

“When they present driver’s license, they may still bear a non-citizen notation on the back of the license but they are citizens,” Levenson said. “These are valid forms of ID. And there’s a risk that people are going to be disenfranchised.”

Levenson said LaRose needs to correct the state’s website and clarify rules for boards of elections on IDs for naturalized citizens.
She said the secretary of state’s official website incorrectly said driver’s licenses bearing “noncitizen” notations are unacceptable forms of voter ID, wrongly confusing this designation with a credential marked “non-renewable”. And Levenson said that is why election officials could mistakenly disenfranchise naturalized citizens.

The voting rights groups want LaRose to immediately correct his website and notify all local boards that a person with a renewable driver’s license — which if the holder is a recently naturalized citizen, still may bear a “noncitizen” notation — must be permitted to use that license as voter ID.

LaRose’s office has not commented.