Ohio H.B. 458 Challenge

Lawsuit filed by ​​the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, Union Veterans Council and Civic Influencers against Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and the state’s 88 county boards of elections challenging House Bill 458. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Jan. 6, 2023, imposes multiple new restrictions on the voting process by: creating a new photo ID provision that requires one of four forms of photo ID (a driver’s license, state identification card, passport or military identification) in order to vote in person and eliminating a long list of previously accepted IDs; moving up the deadline for voters to cure (meaning fix minor technical mistakes) their provisional and rejected mail-in ballots from seven days to four days after Election Day; advancing both the deadline for voters to request mail-in ballots from three days to a week before Election Day and the deadline for voters to return their mail-in ballots from 10 days to four days after Election Day; restricting the use of drop boxes to one drop box per county and eliminating early, in-person voting on Monday before Election Day.

The plaintiffs allege that H.B. 458 “will severely restrict Ohioans’ access to the polls—particularly those voters who are young, elderly, and Black, as well as those serving in the military and others living abroad” and “imposes needless and discriminatory burdens on Ohioans’ fundamental right to vote” in violation of the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit asks the court to permanently block the challenged provisions in H.B. 458 for being unconstitutional. On Jan. 8, 2024, the judge ruled in favor of the defendants and upheld the challenged provisions, holding that they do not violate the U.S. Constitution.

Last updated: January 8, 2024 2:07 pm EST