Red state Republicans tear their caucus apart with last-minute voter ID loophole: report

Ohio Senate Republicans muscled a photo voter ID constitutional amendment through their chamber on Wednesday, just weeks after introducing it, and conservatives are already balking over what's missing from the text.

The Senate cleared Senate Joint Resolution 10 by a 22-9 margin, with the Statehouse News Bureau reporting the measure could land on November ballots if the House signs off as soon as next week. Photo ID has been required at Ohio polling places since 2023, but Republican leaders argue the existing statute isn't enough and want voters to lock the requirement into the state constitution.

"Amending our constitution should never be taken lightly," Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) testified Wednesday. "And the General Assembly won’t have the final say on the matter."

The proposal does not address mail-in voting, which operates under less stringent ID rules, and a tweak made in committee on Tuesday punts the issue to future legislators. That carve-out has drawn fire from the right, including from Sen. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield), who said the lack of stricter language leaves the measure incomplete.

"I guess we’re going to have to rely on the House to clean our mess a little bit," Cutrona testified. "As it stands today, I'm a 'no' vote."

Under the state constitution, a legislatively referred amendment requires the approval of three-fifths of the members elected to each chamber before it can go to voters, meaning 60 votes in the House. Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) admitted Wednesday that members on both sides have raised reservations and that he plans to work with them.

Conservative activists outside the legislature have piled on as well. The Daily Signal reported that state Rep. Ron Ferguson, the Wintersville Republican sponsoring a separate bill requiring photo ID for absentee mail ballots, opposes the amendment in its current form because, he said, "it would codify the mail-in ballot loophole."

All Senate Democrats voted no. Sen. Willis Blackshear (D-Dayton) called the pace itself the problem, telling colleagues the chamber was "focused on an issue that does not exist." An earlier Ohio Capital Journal report found that of more than 80 witnesses who submitted testimony on the House companion, only two backed the proposal.