The Ohio Secretary of State is facing a lawsuit over a controversial new voting law that plaintiffs argue could disenfranchise thousands of naturalized citizens. The League of Women Voters of Ohio and the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Northern Ohio filed the complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on February 13, 2026, against Frank LaRose, the current Ohio Secretary of State.
The lawsuit challenges Senate Bill 293 (SB 293), which mandates monthly checks of voter registration records against state and federal databases to identify noncitizens. Plaintiffs claim this law violates both the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. According to the complaint, SB 293 directs voter registrations to be canceled without prior notice if discrepancies are found, even if they occur close to an election. This process relies on outdated data from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, which plaintiffs argue often misclassify naturalized citizens as noncitizens due to stale information.
The plaintiffs allege that SB 293 violates Section 8(c) of the NVRA by conducting systematic voter purges within 90 days of a federal election, which is prohibited unless based on death or criminal conviction. Additionally, they assert that SB 293 contravenes Section 8(b) by using unreliable databases that disproportionately affect naturalized citizens, making it neither uniform nor nondiscriminatory. The lawsuit also claims a violation of due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment because eligible voters can be removed from rolls without adequate notice or opportunity to contest their removal.
The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent enforcement of SB 293’s provisions that mandate citizenship checks and automatic voter registration cancellations. They are asking for court orders prohibiting these actions during federally mandated quiet periods before elections and requiring pre-removal notices with opportunities for affected voters to respond.
Representing the plaintiffs are attorneys Freda J. Levenson, David J. Carey, Carlen Zhang-D’Souza from ACLU OF OHIO FOUNDATION, INC., along with other legal experts from AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION and CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER. The case is presided over by Judge Michael H. Watson under Case ID: 2:26-cv-00177-MHW-EPD.
Source: 226cv00177_League_of_Women_Voters_of_Ohio_v_LaRose_Complaint_Southern_District_Ohio.pdf
