Memorandum: Ohio Republicans Keep Losing to Ohio Voters. So Now They're Coming After Them.

Memorandum: Ohio Republicans Keep Losing to Ohio Voters. So Now They're Coming After Them.

To: Ohio Voters, Election Protection Activists, and Democracy Defenders

From: Mally Smith, Senior Adviser, Try And Stop Us

Date: Monday, September 28, 2026

The Plan

Ohio Republicans have spent six years rewriting the rules to hold onto power, and Ohio voters spent the last three beating them at the ballot box. Now, Republicans are going after the voters themselves: the groups that register them, the ballots they mail, and the registrations they already have. Here is what they did, step by step.

Ohio Republicans choked off ballot drop boxes. Ohio Republicans have held every Ohio county, from Vinton to Cuyahoga, to a single ballot drop box since 2020, issuing the limit just hours after Cuyahoga County announced plans to collect ballots at public libraries. After a federal judge ruled that Ohio's limits on who can return a ballot violated the rights of voters with disabilities, the Republican Secretary of State ordered that only a voter's own ballot go in a drop box and he urged lawmakers to consider banning drop boxes altogether.

Republicans defied the Ohio Supreme Court seven times to keep their gerrymandered maps. After Ohioans voted overwhelmingly to ban partisan gerrymandering, the state's high court struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps five times and congressional maps twice, and Republicans on the redistricting commission ran out the clock until Ohioans voted in 2022 under maps the court had ruled unconstitutional.

Republicans rammed through Ohio's biggest voting overhaul in years. In January 2023, Ohio Republicans passed a new law requiring strict photo ID at the polls, ending early voting on the Monday before Election Day, cutting the time voters have to request, return and fix a mail ballot, and writing the one-drop-box limit into law. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed it, called the matter “settled” and said he did not expect “any further statutory changes to Ohio voting procedures while I am governor.”

Ohio Republicans rewrote the rules so delayed mail can nullify your vote. Last fall, weeks after Trump's DOJ threatened Ohio with a lawsuit, state Republicans passed legislation killing Ohio's four-day grace period for mailed ballots. One of the state senators bragged that it would keep Ohio in line with “President Trump's executive order.” The GOP Governor signed it on his last day to act, saying he wished he could veto it, and Ohio’s Republican House Speaker suggested that Ohioans who can should consider not voting by mail. In 2024, about 10,000 ballots that voters mailed on time arrived during that grace period and were counted. This year, every one of them would be thrown out.

They ordered monthly voter roll purges. Buried in the same bill, Republicans ordered monthly purges that run Ohio's voter rolls against BMV records and the Trump administration's SAVE database, then cancel registrations first and notify voters after. The BMV does not automatically update a license when its holder becomes a citizen, so the matches sweep in naturalized Ohioans, a group of roughly 300,000 voters. DHS itself has admitted its database can share inaccurate information because of misspelled names and transposed numbers. The law even allows cancellations inside the final 30 days before an election, when a wrongly purged voter has no time left to fix it. Republicans are already running the new purges, and his office has put 208,856 more registrations on the chopping block for January even as voting rights groups have sued to stop the purges.

Ohio Republicans fed Trump's Justice Department sensitive voter data. In March, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose handed the sensitive voter data of nearly 8 million Ohioans to Trump's DOJ. A year earlier, he referred 1,084 Ohioans to federal prosecutors as supposed “noncitizens,” a list built from database name-matches that nobody has verified and that has produced nothing anyone can point to — even after county prosecutors and Ohio’s Republican Attorney General declined to pursue most of them When LaRose sent the AG 600 referrals the year before, he brought six indictments, and LaRose himself has called noncitizen registration “exceedingly rare.” The number was invented to scare people, and it handed Trump's Justice Department exactly the story it wanted to tell about Ohio.

Trump's FBI went after the people who register Ohio voters, and the Republican Governor's office thanked them. On June 11, FBI agents raided the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a group whose sister organization registered nearly 160,000 Ohio voters in 2024. Agents then fanned out across the state, seizing laptops and other devices and showing up at the homes of staff and volunteers. A board member said more than 100 agents took part, following people to school and to work. The raid came about a month after Trump's Justice Department told prosecutors to prioritize “voter fraud” cases, and the FBI has offered no public explanation since. Days later, agents widened the probe and subpoenaed America Votes for records on who funds the group. Secretary of State Frank LaRose's response? His office said it appreciated the work of “our federal law enforcement partners” and stood ready to help.

Trump's judges approved a new paperwork requirement even after it blocked eligible married women from registering to vote. Ohio Republicans slipped a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for anyone registering at the BMV into a transportation spending bill. A federal judge blocked it in August after women whose papers didn't match their married names were turned away, including one who brought a valid U.S. passport. On September 23, at the Secretary of State's request, two Trump-appointed judges on the Sixth Circuit put it back in force, less than two weeks before the October 5 registration deadline, in a country with no single standard document that proves citizenship.

Ohio Republicans are trying to lock photo ID into the constitution. Now Republicans have put Issue 3 on the November ballot to write strict photo ID into the Ohio Constitution, after the current law already turned away more than 10,000 registered voters. Trump himself pushed them to do it, posting “I will be watching.” State House Republicans already voted down an amendment to make the required ID free.

The Why

Ohio's elections work, and Ohio Republicans have said so on the record. In 2020, while Trump attacked mail voting from the debate stage, Secretary of State LaRose told Ohioans that absentee voting here is “trusted and secure” and dismissed claims otherwise as “absolute B.S.” Gov. Mike DeWine has said again and again that he sees no need to change Ohio's election laws, and admitted he wished he could veto the bill killing the grace period. In June, he vetoed his party's photo ID mandate for mail ballots, calling it a significant burden on voters.

Even Republican election officials admit Trump's plan fails here. When the Supreme Court refused this month to let Trump's mail voting restrictions take effect, Secretary LaRose said the ruling would change nothing in Ohio, “Not at all,” and that he wasn't surprised. In April, he said the law Ohio already has “has been working now for many decades.” County election directors warned that Trump's mail rules would delay ballots, raise costs, and bury their staff weeks before an election. Republicans know the system works, and they keep changing the rules anyway.

Ohio voters keep beating them in fair fights. In August 2023, Republicans called a special election to make it harder to amend the constitution, and Secretary LaRose admitted the point was to stop an abortion rights amendment. Voters crushed it by 14 points, then passed abortion rights three months later. Now Ohio is headed for close races for U.S. Senate and governor, with Sherrod Brown challenging Jon Husted and Amy Acton taking on Vivek Ramaswamy.

They can see what happens when Ohioans turn out, and they know they can't win a fair fight. So they raid the groups that register voters, purge the rolls on bad data, and toss ballots that are mailed on time. Every piece of the plan above exists to shrink the electorate before November 3 so Republicans can hold onto power.

The Framing

Voters pick our leaders, not the other way around. Ohio Republicans need to hear it loud and clear. Ohioans have rejected their power grabs at the ballot box again and again, and Frank LaRose and the legislature answered by coming after the voters who keep beating them.

Name what they did, plainly. Trump's FBI raided a group that registers Ohio voters and came to volunteers' houses, and LaRose’s office thanked them for it. Republicans passed a law to throw out ballots that were mailed on time, and they are purging eligible voters on DMV records they know are wrong. Trump's judges just let them demand citizenship papers from people registering at the BMV, two weeks before the deadline.

Say why, and what it costs. Ohio's Republican election chief says the system works. They know it is safe, secure, and simple. They are attacking it anyway because they can't win a fair fight in Ohio, and they know it. Trump's allies in Columbus would rather shrink the electorate than face it, so they can hold onto power and keep rigging the game at your expense, lining their pockets while Ohio families foot the bill at the pump and the grocery store.

Make the demand. They're counting on you to stay home. Don't give it to them. Register by October 5. Vote early starting October 6, in person if you can. If you vote by mail, get it in early, because under their new rules a late mail truck can cost you your vote. Show up on November 3 in numbers too big for them to erase.

Register. Vote. Track It.

Their rulebook only works if a missed deadline or a purged registration hands them your vote. Don't let it. Here is how to make sure yours counts.

Register by October 5. Check your registration or register for the first time at VoteOhio.gov. Even if you think you're registered, check anyway: Secretary LaRose's office has flagged 208,856 registrations for removal in January, and casting a ballot on November 3 is the surest way to keep yours. If you register at the BMV, bring proof of citizenship, or register online or by mail at VoteOhio.gov instead, where you only need to sign an attestation.

Voting by mail. Every registered voter should already have an absentee ballot application in the mailbox. Return it as soon as you can; the last day to request a ballot is seven days before the election: Tuesday, October 27. When your ballot arrives, fill it out and send it back right away. Under the new Republican law, your ballot must reach your county board of elections by 7:30 pm on November 3. A postmark no longer saves you. You can also hand-deliver it to your county board of elections or its drop box. Only you or a close family member may drop it off; if you are returning a ballot for a family member or a voter with a disability, you must go inside and sign a form rather than using the drop box.

Voting early. Early in-person voting runs October 6 through November 1 at your county's early voting center, which closes at 5 pm on Sunday, November 1. Bring an unexpired Ohio driver's license or state ID, a U.S. passport or passport card, or a military ID. Voting early in person puts your ballot in front of a poll worker immediately.

Voting on Election Day. Polls are open 6:30 am to 7:30 pm on November 3. You must vote at your assigned polling place and bring an approved photo ID. Find your polling place at VoteOhio.gov.

Track your ballot. If you voted by mail, confirm it was received at VoteOhio.gov. If your ID envelope is missing information, your county board will mail you a form to fix it. Return it immediately so your ballot counts.