A lot of gun owners are asking the same basic question about S.J.R. 10.
“Isn’t this the photo ID amendment?”
That is what the politicians in Columbus want you to think.
And yes, S.J.R. 10 does require photo ID for people who vote in person.
But that is only half the story.
The real fight is over what happens with ballots that are not cast in person.
Because as passed by the Ohio Senate, S.J.R. 10 still allows a weaker standard for mail-in ballots.
That means Ohio could still have one standard for the guy who walks into the polling place, and another weaker standard for the ballot that comes through the mail.
That is not real election security.
That is a two-tiered voting system dressed up as photo ID.
So let’s answer the questions plainly.
QUESTION: Does S.J.R. 10 require photo ID to vote?
For in-person voting, yes.
For mail-in voting, not necessarily.
And that is the problem.
S.J.R. 10 says voters must provide photo ID to vote in person at a polling place or other voting location.
But for every other method of voting, including mail-in voting, it allows the legislature to authorize a signature and another “unique identifier” instead.
In plain English: the same amendment politicians are calling “photo ID” still lets mail-in ballots avoid the same photo ID standard.
QUESTION: How does Ohio’s absentee ballot system work right now?
A voter can request an absentee ballot.
Then, when returning that ballot, the voter signs the identification envelope and provides identifying information, such as a driver’s license number, the last four digits of a Social Security number, or a copy of ID.
But Ohio does NOT require every absentee voter to include a valid copy of photo ID with the returned ballot.
That is a major weakness.
Because a number can be written down.
A signature can be scribbled.
And if something is wrong, it may not be discovered until after the ballot has already been cast, counted, and mixed into the final results.
That is the real issue. Ohio’s system is too comfortable with catching problems later instead of stopping bad ballots before they are cast.
QUESTION: What about non-citizens voting?
Non-citizens are not legally allowed to vote in Ohio elections.
But that is not the same thing as saying the system is airtight.
The problem is that a non-citizen can lie.
And with these fraudsters, they often do.
That is not complicated.
A non-citizen may be able to obtain an Ohio driver’s license or state ID with the proper federal paperwork.
Then, if that person illegally checks the citizenship box on the voter registration form, the system may not catch it before a ballot is cast.
And if that person votes by absentee ballot, Ohio does not require that returned ballot to include a valid copy of photo ID every time.
In other words, the system depends too much on an honor code, database checks, later audits, and after-the-fact enforcement.
But once an illegal ballot is cast and counted, what then?
Do they pull that vote back out of the stack?
Do they rerun the election?
Do they make the voters whole?
Of course not.
This is the part politicians do not want to talk about:
Punishing illegal voting after the fact is not the same thing as preventing illegal voting before it happens.
QUESTION: Isn’t lying on a voter registration form already illegal?
Yes.
But that is not good enough.
Gun owners know exactly how ridiculous this argument is.
When the government wants to regulate gun owners, they do not say, “Just sign a form and we’ll check later.”
When you buy a firearm from a dealer, they run the check before the transfer.
When you renew a carry license, they check your eligibility before issuing it.
When gun owners make one paperwork mistake, the politicians are ready to ruin lives.
But when it comes to election security, suddenly the same politicians want us to trust the honor system.
No thanks.
QUESTION: Are there any states that have a better model?
Yes, North Carolina does.
For absentee-by-mail voting, North Carolina generally requires the voter to include a photocopy of an acceptable photo ID with the ballot, unless the voter completes an ID exception form.
That means the photo ID requirement follows the ballot.
That is the model Ohio should be looking at, because North Carolina at least understands the basic principle:
If photo ID matters at the polling place, then it matters for the mail-in ballot too.
QUESTION: What is OGO’s alternative?
Simple.
Require photo ID to vote.
In person or by mail.
If you vote in person, show photo ID.
If you vote by mail, include a valid copy of photo ID with the returned ballot.
Same standard.
Same election.
Same constitutional protection.
No two-tiered voting system. No mail-in ballot loophole. No watered-down language.
QUESTION: Why not pass S.J.R. 10 now and fix it later?
Because this is a constitutional amendment.
You do not put bad language in the Ohio Constitution and hope politicians clean it up later.
That is how conservatives get rolled.
The whole point of putting something in the Constitution is to lock down the rule.
But if the rule being locked down still allows mail-in ballots to operate under a weaker standard, then the politicians are not fixing the problem.
They are cementing the loophole in place.
That is why Ohio Gun Owners is saying NO to the Senate’s watered-down language.
We support real photo ID. We support secure elections. We support one clean standard for every ballot. But we do NOT support politicians calling something “photo ID” while leaving the absentee ballot loophole wide open.
Gun owners have seen this trick before.
They give a bad bill a good name.
They slap a conservative talking point on it.
Then they bury the escape hatch in the fine print.
Not this time.
Ohio does not need a two-tiered voting system.
Ohio needs one standard.
Photo ID to vote.
In person or by mail.
No Democrat deal. No watered-down language. No loopholes. No excuses.