Ohio voter registrations down as state enacts new election laws

Ohio voter registrations are down as the state confronts what could prove to be among the most pivotal midterm elections in modern times. Voter rolls as of Oct. 26 dropped by 52,562 compared to 2018, which was the final midterm cycle before lawmakers implemented a series of new election regulations.

Population Growth Contrasts With Declining Rolls

This drop in registered voters runs directly counter to demographic trends across the state. According to estimates in the Federal Register, Ohio’s eligible citizen voting-age population grew by at least 111,564 residents from 2018 to 2023. When combining this population growth with the registration decline, the data reveals a disappearance of more than 164,000 potential voters.

To put that figure into perspective, Barack Obama carried Ohio by just 166,000 votes in 2012. Back in 2008, even amid a deep economic slide during a presidential election year, Ohio hit its highest voter registration mark of 8.29 million. Today’s registrations sit 737,178 lower than that peak. The U.S. Elections Project ranked Ohio 12th in the nation for voter participation in 2008, but by 2024, the state had dropped to 24th.

Legislative Restrictions and Proof of Citizenship

The downward trajectory follows four years of new laws enacted by the Republican legislature making it harder to both register and cast a ballot. Public records show that Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state lawmakers frequently echoed Donald Trump’s false claims of rigged elections and voter fraud.

Public records obtained by pro-democracy organizations indicate that LaRose’s office coordinated with State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, to discuss election-law changes. In December 2022, Gavarone used the Senate Elections Committee to rewrite a seemingly minor bill into a mandate requiring direct proof of citizenship to register to vote—documentation that many citizens find difficult to locate. Ohioans are also required to prove citizenship again when voting by presenting photo identification.

In February 2023, Gavarone introduced two bills that the Ohio Capital Journal identified as “priority voting measures” for LaRose, creating an internal election integrity unit and requiring comprehensive, universal voter-registration data sharing among Ohio’s 88 counties. LaRose acknowledged that this database legislation was crafted with the assistance of the America First Policy Institute. Later legislative changes eliminated the four-day grace period for mail-in ballots postmarked by election day, a move Gavarone tied to a 2025 executive order issued by Trump. If that mail-in ballot restriction had been in place during the 2024 election, 20,896 mail-in ballots would have been incinerated rather than counted.

The Safeguard of Local Boards

Information regarding the current registration decline and its underlying causes continues to unfold as public records requests submitted to Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office remain unanswered.