Every single Democrat in Ohio’s state Senate voted against letting voters decide whether to protect photo ID requirements in the state constitution, even as a new poll shows more than three-quarters of Buckeye State residents support the measure.
The Ohio Senate passed the joint resolution 22-9 last week, with the partisan split laying bare just how far removed Democratic lawmakers are from their own constituents on election integrity. The resolution now heads to the GOP-controlled House, where it needs a three-fifths majority to place the constitutional amendment on November’s ballot.
A poll released over the weekend by Honest Elections Project Action found 76 percent of likely Ohio voters would vote for a constitutional amendment requiring photo ID at the polls. Fifty-four percent said they’d strongly support it.
Even more striking: the issue isn’t remotely controversial among actual voters. The survey found 86 percent of likely voters believe photo ID should be required to vote, including 99 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of independents, and 69 percent of Democrats.
That last number should give Ohio’s Democratic legislators pause. Seven in ten members of their own party back photo ID requirements, yet not one Senate Democrat could bring themselves to vote yes.
“The Ohio House should quickly pass SJR 10, sending a ballot issue to voters to make voter ID permanent by enshrining it into the state constitution,” Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, said in a statement. “The Buckeye State deserves to have honest elections where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Ohio Senate President Rob McColley told reporters after Wednesday’s vote that he expects overwhelming support for the ballot question, calling it “the type of protection that voters want to see in the system.”
Ohio’s photo ID law took effect in 2023. The state is among a small number nationwide that strictly require photo identification to vote, with no non-photo alternatives accepted at the polls. Wisconsin voters approved a similar constitutional protection last year.
The poll also found strong support for tightening mail ballot security. Seventy percent of respondents said they’d back an amendment requiring mail-in voters to provide their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Sixty-nine percent support requiring a copy of the voter’s ID with mail ballots.
Some conservative lawmakers want absentee ballot ID requirements included in the current resolution, but that fight will likely come later.
For Republicans, there’s a silver lining beyond the policy win. Eighty-six percent of poll respondents said they’d be more likely to vote in November if the constitutional amendment were on the ballot. Fifty-two percent said much more likely. That’s good news in a midterm year when the party in power typically struggles with turnout.
Ohio has a high-stakes Senate race this fall. Republican Jon Husted faces far-left former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat two years ago to Republican Bernie Moreno.
The poll surveyed 800 respondents from May 27 to June 2, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percent.
Meanwhile, Ohio’s state Senate accomplished what the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has not. Last week, Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, and Thom Tillis helped kill an effort to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote in federal elections. They joined Democrats in blocking the measure’s attachment to a $70 billion reconciliation bill for immigration enforcement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said repeatedly he lacks the votes to overcome the filibuster.
Ohio voters may get their say in November. Their elected Democrats already made clear they don’t want them to have it.
