Like other anti-voting bills being introduced across the country by the GOP, Ohio’s HB 294 would place severe restrictions on ballot drop boxes and absentee voting.
Republicans’ latest attack on the right to vote comes from Ohio, where state lawmakers introduced their first major voter suppression legislation on Thursday.
Like the bills just signed into law in Georgia and Florida, Ohio’s HB 294 makes its main target absentee voting and ballot drop boxes after those methods were widely used for the first time in Ohio for the November presidential election and helped increase nationwide voter turnout to record levels.
The Ohio House bill would limit the number of drop boxes to just one location per county, and that location can have up to three drop boxes. It would also allow drop boxes to be used only in the 10 days leading up to Election Day, a huge decrease from last year when Ohio voters had 30 days to return their ballot via drop box.
