Thank you, Chair Ray and members of the House General Government Committee, for the opportunity to provide opponent testimony to Substitute Senate Joint Resolution 10 (SJR 10). My name is Collin Marozzi, and I serve as the Advocacy Director of the ACLU of Ohio.
Here are some facts about SJR 10:
1.) Photo ID is already law in Ohio – though there may be a ballot issue on this come November, Ohioans are clear-eyed they have no choice. Photo ID is the law of the land come November 6th whether these proposals succeed or fail.
2.) The political motivation behind these proposals is apparent. Gas is $4.50¹ a gallon, food prices are straining family budgets², and the median age of a first-time homebuyer has never been higher³. SJR 10 is meant to distract us from these truths.
3.) Nothing in SJR 10 makes Ohioan’s lives easier, cheaper, or freer.
With the bevy of serious challenges facing Ohioans, one would think that the state legislature might have more pressing matters to attend to than spending tax-payer funded time to amend our state constitution with something that has already been Ohio law for years. Plainly put, these proposals are out of touch with what the people of Ohio want and need.
Efforts like SJR 10 feed the cynicism strangling our current politics. A credible argument can be made that this effort will actually hurt public trust. It’s only logical that confusion will spike about our existing photo ID requirement if voters are asked to approve photo ID in November.
Supporters of these resolutions assert the policy’s popularity warrant rushing these resolutions to the ballot in hopes of adding them to our constitution. What else should we enshrine in our constitution that polls well and is already law? School zone speed limits? Designate the 4th of July as a state holiday? The very idea is nonsensical.
Proponents contend SJR 10 and are needed to “restore public trust in elections”⁴ –we’ve heard this time and again. This was the justification given when the General Assembly banned counties from having multiple secure drop box locations open year-round. This was the justification when the General Assembly stripped the post-election grace period for absentee ballots first from ten days to four days and then from four days to zero days.
This was the justification given when the General Assembly passed photo ID the first time in 2022. This was the justification given when the General Assembly targeted the citizen petition process in August of 2023. It begs the question – when will public trust be restored? When is enough enough?
The fact is Ohio’s elections are secure and accurate. They have been secure and accurate for far longer than we’ve had photo ID laws. Ohio has serious challenges ahead, and we need serious people to solve them. SJR 10 is nothing more than a political stunt, and we intend to treat it as such.
- https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=OH
- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000713111
- https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share-falls-to-historic-low-of-21-median-age-rises-to-40
- https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2026/05/18/ohio-election-voter-id-law-constitution-ramaswamy/90097504007/