OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
El
H.B. 294* Bill Analysis
134th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 294’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Reported by House Government Oversight
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Seitz and Ray
Effective Date:
Emily E. Wendel, Attorney
SUMMARY
Absent voting by mail
 Shortens the deadline to apply to cast absent voter’s ballots by mail from noon on the
third day before Election Day to the close of business on the seventh day before Election
Day.
 Requires a person who applies to cast absent voter’s ballots by mail to do so on a form
prescribed by the Secretary of State or on an appropriate federal form for uniformed
services and overseas absent voters.
 Requires the Secretary of State, not later than one year after the bill takes effect, to
establish a secure online system for electors to apply to receive absent voter’s ballots by
mail, and provides requirements for the system.
 Changes the language of the identification envelope statement of voter (the absentee
ballot envelope form) in order to express a preference for the type of ID the voter
provides.
 Requires absent voter’s ballots that are returned by mail to arrive at the board of
elections by the seventh day after Election Day, instead of the tenth day as required
under existing law.
 Requires the boards of elections to begin counting late-arriving and cured absent voter’s
ballots, along with cured provisional ballots, on the eighth day after Election Day,
instead of the eleventh day.
* This analysis was prepared before the report of the House Government Oversight Committee
appeared in the House Journal. Note that the legislative history may be incomplete.
December 12, 2022
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
 Specifies that absent voter’s ballots that are not returned to the board by mail must be
returned to the office of the board, and not to any other location, such as to a drop box
elsewhere in the county.
 Permits the board, if it maintains multiple offices in the county, to designate any of its
offices for the return of absent voter’s ballots, but allows the board to designate only
one office for that purpose.
 Allows the board, during the absent voting period, to provide a not more than one
secure outdoor drop box on the premises of the office of the board.
 Specifies administrative requirements concerning drop boxes.
 Emphasizes the continuing-law principle that absent voter’s ballots that are personally
returned to the board must be delivered by the elector or a listed relative, and not by
any other person.
 Adds language to a related criminal prohibition to specifically prohibit any person from
returning the absent voter’s ballot of another, unless the person is a listed relative or is
acting as an employee or contractor of the U.S. Postal Service or a private carrier.
 Requires, instead of allows, the boards of elections to process absent voter’s ballots
before the close of the polls on Election Day.
 Eliminates a provision of law that requires the board of elections, upon receiving
uniformed services or overseas absent voter’s ballots, to check for ballots that are
enclosed in the return envelope but not inside the identification envelope, and to put
them inside the identification envelope without looking at the markings on the ballots.
 Leaves the Revised Code silent on the issue of whether absent voter’s ballots can be
counted if they are returned to the board inside the return envelope but not inside the
identification envelope.
 Prohibits any public office, and any public official or employee who is acting in an official
capacity, from prepaying the return postage on an application for absent voter’s ballots
or on an absent voter’s ballot return envelope.
 Changes numerous references in the law governing absent voting to refer to a board of
elections receiving, sending, and processing applications and ballots, rather than the
director of the board performing those functions.
In-person absent voting
 Requires in-person absent voting to be permitted for all voters beginning on the day
after the close of voter registration before an election and ending on the Sunday before
the election.
 Codifies the current schedule instituted by Secretary of State directive, but redistributes
the current six hours of in-person absent voting on the day before Election Day
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(Monday) by requiring the boards of elections instead to open earlier and close later
Monday through Friday of the preceding week.
 Clarifies that an in-person absent voter is not required to complete a written application
for absent voter’s ballots.
 Adds a requirement that, if the voter provides a driver’s license or state ID card number
or the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number as identification, the election
officials must verify that the number or digits are not different from the number or
digits in the voter’s registration record.
August special elections
 Eliminates local special elections held in August, with certain exceptions.
 Allows a political subdivision or school district that is in a state of fiscal emergency to
hold an August special election.
 Permits certain local offices, questions, or issues to be placed on the ballot on the same
day as an August special election held to nominate or elect a member of the U.S. House
of Representatives.
Election administration
 Codifies a requirement currently found in Secretary of State directives that each board
of elections prepare an Election Administration Plan (EAP) before each presidential
primary election and each general election held in an even-numbered year.
 Removes the requirement that a 17-year-old high school student be a senior in order to
serve as a precinct election official through the Youth at the Booth program.
 Prohibits a voter registration system or piece of voting equipment from being used in
Ohio if an elected official or the official’s spouse is a partner, owner, or member of the
manufacturer or distributor.
 Updates the law requiring pre-election testing of voting equipment to more closely
match existing Secretary of State directives.
 Prohibits any voting machine, marking device, or piece of automatic tabulating
equipment from being used in an election without undergoing successful testing.
 Appropriates $7.5 million in FY 2023-2024 to the Office of Procurement Services in the
Department of Administrative Services to pay 85% of the cost of electronic pollbooks
and ancillary equipment for boards of elections.
 Changes the process by which a board of elections must award any ballot printing
contract worth more than $25,000.
 Allows the board to award the contract to an out-of-state vendor.
 Requires the board to allow a request for proposals period of at least 15 days, and
allows the board to post electronic notices in addition to newspaper and mailed notices.
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 Reduces the amount of the bond that must be included with each proposal.
 Requires the Secretary of State to adopt rules establishing printing, mailing, and security
standards for ballot printing vendors.
Citizenship notation on driver’s licenses and state ID cards
 Requires any commercial driver’s license (CDL), driver’s license, or state ID card that is issued
to a person who is not a U.S. citizen to include a notation that the person is a noncitizen.
 Authorizes a noncitizen who becomes a U.S. citizen in-between renewals of the person’s
current CDL, driver’s license, or state ID card to obtain a free replacement license or
card that removes the notation of noncitizenship.
Alternative forms of county government
 Increases, from 3% to 10% of the electors of a county, the signature requirement for a
petition to place an issue on the ballot to adopt an alternative form of county government.
Technical changes
 Makes a clarifying change to the law governing in-person voting on Election Day to
specify that a voter must sign the pollbook, instead of requiring the voter to write the
voter’s name and address.
 Updates several references in Ohio law to federal election laws to refer to those laws’
current locations in the U.S. Code.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Absent voting by mail ..................................................................................................................... 5
Application deadline.................................................................................................................... 5
Unsolicited applications .............................................................................................................. 5
Form of application ..................................................................................................................... 6
Online applications ...................................................................................................................... 6
Identification envelope statement of voter ................................................................................ 7
Return procedures ...................................................................................................................... 8
Ballot return deadline............................................................................................................. 8
Drop boxes.............................................................................................................................. 8
Background on drop boxes ..................................................................................................... 8
Drop boxes under the bill ....................................................................................................... 9
Who may deliver ballots ......................................................................................................... 9
Processing ballots before the close of the polls........................................................................ 10
Ballots not enclosed in the identification envelope ................................................................. 10
Postage ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Change from “director” to “board”........................................................................................... 11
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In-person absent voting ................................................................................................................ 11
Days and hours .......................................................................................................................... 11
Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 13
August special elections ................................................................................................................ 13
Fiscal emergency exception ...................................................................................................... 14
Special congressional election exception.................................................................................. 14
Election administration ................................................................................................................. 15
Election Administration Plans ................................................................................................... 15
Youth at the Booth .................................................................................................................... 15
Voting equipment...................................................................................................................... 16
Manufacturers and distributors ........................................................................................... 16
Pre-election testing .............................................................................................................. 16
Electronic pollbooks appropriation ...................................................................................... 17
Ballot printing contracts ............................................................................................................ 17
Citizenship notation on driver’s licenses and state ID cards ........................................................ 18
Alternative forms of county government ..................................................................................... 19
Technical changes ......................................................................................................................... 19
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Absent voting by mail
Application deadline
The bill shortens the deadline to apply to cast absent voter’s ballots by mail from noon
on the third day before Election Day to the close of business on the seventh day before Election
Day. That deadline applies to applications delivered to the office of the board in person or by
mail or submitted online.
However, the bill retains a provision of current law that allows an elector to submit an
application not later than 3:00 p.m. on Election Day if the elector or the elector’s minor child
has been unexpectedly hospitalized.1
Unsolicited applications
The bill relocates, but does not substantively change, language in continuing law that
generally prohibits a board of elections or any other public office or public official or employee
from mailing or otherwise delivering unsolicited applications for absent voter’s ballots.
However, under continuing law, unchanged by the bill, the Secretary of State may mail those
1 R.C. 3503.16(E), 3509.03(D), 3509.031(A)(2), 3509.08, 3511.02, and 3511.04.
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applications for a general election, so long as the General Assembly has made an appropriation
for that particular mailing.2
Form of application
The bill requires a person who applies to cast absent voter’s ballots by mail to do so on a
form prescribed by the Secretary of State, except that, under continuing law, a uniformed
services or overseas absent voter still may apply on the Federal Post Card Application or submit
a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot. (The Federal Voting Assistance Program prescribes those
forms under federal law, and the states are required to accept them.)
If a board of elections receives an application that is not submitted on an appropriate
form, the bill requires the board promptly to direct the applicant to use an appropriate form.
Current law specifies that an application for absent voter’s ballots need not be in any
particular form, but that it must contain all of the required information. The Secretary of State
has prescribed forms for this purpose, but applicants also may use a form provided by their
local board of elections or another entity, or may begin with a blank sheet of paper and create
their own form, so long as it includes the required information.3
Online applications
Under the bill, not later than one year after the bill takes effect, the Secretary of State
must establish a secure online system for electors to apply to receive absent voter’s ballots by
mail. (The online system is in addition to the continuing-law procedures that allow a uniformed
services or overseas absent voter to submit an application electronically.)
The online application must requir