COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)-(AVC News) — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked enforcement of an Ohio requirement that voters show proof of citizenship when registering to vote at a motor vehicle bureau, a rule that took effect for the first time this year.
In a lawsuit brought on behalf of the Ohio Alliance of Retired Americans and the progressive group Red Wine & Blue by the Democrat-aligned Elias Law Group, U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. in Cleveland ruled that the requirement appears to conflict with the National Voter Registration Act, which he said takes precedence.
His injunction suspends the practice of requiring such documentation ahead of the Oct. 5 registration deadline for this fall’s midterm elections.
It comes as President Donald Trump pushes Congress to pass a bill that would, among other election changes, require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he would immediately appeal.
Ohio is among a handful of states with proof-of-citizenship laws in place for the first time this year. South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming also put similar requirements on the books for this year’s midterms. Arizona had one already in force for state and local elections.
Ohio’s requirement was added last year to its motor voter law.
In his ruling, Judge Solomon wrote that the requirement “is more than the signed attestation to U.S. citizenship that Ohio’s other voter registration methods accept. Therefore, (the challenged provision) likely conflicts with the NVRA, because it is more than ‘the minimum amount of information necessary.’”
He further found that Ohio’s overall “motor voter” registration process has illegally been limiting the option to sign up to vote to those who successfully obtain a driver’s license, rather than offering it to everyone who submits an application for one, as federal law requires.
The judge’s order prevents Ohio from requiring any driver’s license applicant to produce proof-of-citizenship documents before being offered the chance to register to vote, even those applicants turned away for lack of the proper paperwork. It doesn’t cover applicants who indicate they are not U.S. citizens.
LaRose criticized the ruling and pointed to a case in Franklin County, that he said proves the process Solomon has required doesn’t work. The case involved a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. who was ineligible to vote but did so in 2018 after she said a clerk at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles mistakenly led her to believe she was allowed to do so. The woman was found not guilty by reason of entrapment.
“Under this order, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would be required to offer a voter registration form to a person who is applying for a driver’s license, even if that person can’t verify that they’re a citizen,” LaRose said in a statement. “We strongly disagree with that decision, and I’ve asked our legal team to file an immediate appeal.”
A 2025 University of Maryland study estimates that 21.3 million Americans eligible to vote do not have documents or have easy access to the documents required to prove citizenship.
