Richard Topper has been a trial attorney in Columbus for 45 years and is actively involved in voting rights efforts.
Ohio Republicans have sent an unnecessary bill to Gov. Mike DeWine that would have invalidated 8,000 legitimate mail ballots in the 2024 presidential election and 7,000 this year.
If the governor keeps his 2023 promise that he did not expect to see any further statutory changes to Ohio voting procedures while he is governor, he should veto this bill.
Vote by mail in Ohio is extremely popular. In 2024, more than one million Ohio Republicans, Democrats and independents cast their ballot by mail. Many Ohioans, especially seniors, people with disabilities, those with childcare or jobs that do not allow them to vote on Election Day, students and Ohioans who are out of state rely on this method of voting.
Presently, conscientious voters who wait until right before the election to make their decision on issues and candidates can wait until the day before the election to postmark their mail ballot. Their votes will count as long as their ballot arrives within four days after Election Day.
The bill beforeDeWine, Senate Bill 293, strips away this grace period and requires your vote-by-mail ballot to arrive at your county board of elections on Election Day. If the law was in effect in 2024, the votes of 8,000 Ohioans would not have counted.
As reported by Jordan Laird in the Dispatch Dec. 1, even with a smaller turnout in November 2025, the bill would have tossed 496 votes in Franklin County. Statewide, nearly 7,000 votes would have been thrown out.
We all know how many elections are won or lost by razor-thin margins, especially in off-year elections. Not counting the votes that come in the four days after Election Day could affect the outcome not only in state and national offices, but also in county, township, school board and city races, and in local tax, bond and school funding issues.
I’ve seen races decided by mail ballots arriving within the four-day grace period. The Republican chair of the committee who voted yes admitted the same when she asked a witness if she ever had to break the “heartbreaking” news to a candidate that he/she lost when all votes were counted, including the ones arriving within the four-day grace period. My response would have been that breaking that news to thin-skinned politicians pales in comparison to an assault on democracy when all votes are not counted.
I’ve listened to the arguments of the politicians supporting this bill. None of those arguments give legitimacy to suppressing thousands of Ohio absentee by mail votes. Yes, the majority of other states require vote-by-mail ballots to be in by Election Day, but many of those states have drop boxes throughout their counties, not like Ohio, which has one time-restricted drop box in the county seat.
As a proponent of the bill, Frank LaRose testified that 8,000 votes is a small number. There was no testimony that the votes arriving within the four days were fraudulent. Imagine the outcry of all supporters of this bill 8,000 fraudulent votes were cast in an election.
Gov. DeWine, I would assume you are a person of your word. Stand by your promise that no more voting restrictions are needed in Ohio. Veto Senate Bill 293 and protect all Ohioans’ right to vote.
Richard Topper
Richard Topper has been a trial attorney in Columbus for 45 years and is actively involved in voting rights efforts.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Gov. DeWine must veto Senate Bill 293 on absentee voting | Opinion
