Jack Fitzhenry is a senior legal policy analyst in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies of The Heritage Foundation.
Ohio’s New Voting Law Balance Secure Elections With Ballot Access- To understand how Ohio improved, let’s look into some of the new law’s particulars. Central to the reform was a focus on photo IDs. All Ohio voters casting their ballots in person must now provide a government-issued photo ID at their polling place. That enables poll workers to authenticate the identity of each person and ensure that only eligible voters are casting ballots. Of course, many voters no longer show up on Election Day, preferring instead to vote by mail. Now, mail-in voting will be subject to the same voter-verification standards as in-person voting. Applicants for an absentee ballot must include a copy of their government-issued photo identification with their application to receive a mail-in ballot, along with other unique identifying information, such as the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number.
UPDATE - Under the new law, ballots post-marked prior to election day are eligible to be counted so long as they arrive “prior to the fifth day after the election.” So, current Ohio law still creates the possibility of delayed election results.