Politics

No New Movement on Ohio's Voter Citizenship Case

There is nothing new to report on Ohio's voter citizenship case, and the paper is saying so rather than letting the thread quietly drop.

Tuesday's edition reported that US District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. blocked an Ohio law requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration at motor vehicles offices, ruling that a written citizenship attestation was enough for election officials to assess eligibility. [1] The state's attorney general's office had not responded to the ruling by Tuesday, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he would not "apologize for, or back down from" the state's registration integrity efforts.

The paper ran multiple distinct search strategies today for a state appeal of that preliminary injunction, for any emergency stay request, and for movement on the related thread — Ohio mail-voting rules connected to Wednesday's report that a federal judge found the Trump administration had violated a mail-voting order before lifting it. None of those searches turned up a dated follow-up on the Ohio citizenship ruling specifically. [1]

The underlying stakes have not changed: a competitive Ohio Senate race lands on the November 3 ballot, and the National Voter Registration Act injunction stands unless and until the state appeals it. A Reuters investigation in July found federal prosecutors have charged just 129 people nationwide under the federal statute criminalizing noncitizen voting, undercutting the premise behind Ohio's law and similar state pushes. [1] The paper will follow up if that changes.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington

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