State officials are defending Ohio’s system of allowing no-excuse mail voting as President Donald Trump has called for a ban on the practice nationwide.
Signal asked top state officials and candidates for Secretary of State, Ohio’s top elections official, about Trump’s latest demand to end “crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel” during his State of the Union address last week. This would dramatically change Ohio’s system of mail voting, which for 20 years has allowed voters to cast a ballot by mail for any reason. Trump also has telegraphed that he may act unilaterally to impose new national voting restrictions if Congress fails to act.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who is running for state auditor this year, supports Ohio’s current system, according to spokesperson Ben Kindel.
“When done right, voting early by mail has proven to be effective, efficient and secure,” Kindel said. “Ohio has the right checks and balances in place to keep mail-in voting accountable, but other states don’t. That’s what we should be focused on fixing.”
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine made a similar defense of Ohio’s existing system without criticizing Trump’s proposal outright.
“We’ll deal with that if that does in fact pass,” DeWine said Wednesday.
House Speaker Matt Huffman, also a Republican, reiterated his longstanding view that state legislatures have sweeping authority to determine the “time, place and manner” of congressional elections.
“Its a broad palette, if you will, of different kinds of questions. And so we’d ultimately have to see … what Congress would do, and what the President would do.”
Republican Ohio lawmakers complied the last time the president called to tighten state voting procedures. In response to a legal threat from the Trump Administration, lawmakers in November swiftly passed a law requiring all mail ballots arrive by Election Day to be counted, and DeWine “reluctantly” signed it after previously saying he’d oppose any future elections restrictions.
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Secretary of state candidates weigh in
In an interview, state Rep. Allison Russo, a Democratic candidate for secretary of state, said she hears from voters “constantly” who are deeply concerned that Trump may act to interfere with the 2026 election.
“I think there are people from both sides of the aisle who are very, very concerned about this. And I think that’s why people are really paying attention to the secretary of state’s race,” Russo said.
In a statement, Bryan Hambley, a doctor who’s competing with Russo for the Democratic Party nomination for secretary of state in the May primary election, said officials should be making voting easier, not harder.
“Ohio’s elections, including votes cast by mail, are safe and secure,” Hambley said. “Adding ID requirements beyond what Ohio law states and eliminating mail-in voting opportunities will suppress citizen’s voices at the ballot box.”
The campaign for State Treasurer Robert Sprague, a Republican running for secretary of state this year, avoided commenting directly on Trump’s proposal.
“Ohioans have great confidence in our elections because we take election security seriously, and President Trump is right to call upon Congress to strengthen election security in states that lack it,” Campaign Manager Dalton Throckmorton said.
Throckmorton also said “Democrats have abused and cheated via mail-in voting for years” without offering evidence. A study by the nonpartisan Brookings Institute last year found documented fraud in mail-in voting to be exceedingly rare, identifying four instances of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast nationally for the 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 general elections.
“Robert Sprague strongly supports government-issued photo ID for all voting methods and believes in-person voting is the most secure,” Throckmorton said.
Marcell Strbich, Sprague’s opponent in the Republican primary election in May, said he supports Trump’s proposal.
“I support justified (valid-excuse) absentee/mail-in ballot voting, provided voters include a copy of a state-issued photo ID with their submission,” said Strbich, a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and activist who’s running to Sprague’s political right.”
Ohio Republicans exempted mail-in voting from a law requiring photo ID they passed in 2023, saying at the time that they didn’t want to make voting harder for the senior citizens who commonly use the practice.
Trump has tied his proposal to the SAVE Act, a Republican voting law pending in the House, although House Republicans so far have refused to include Trump’s proposal to ban no excuse mail voting.
Trump has indicated he may act unilaterally if Congress doesn’t approve something. Outside activists are circulating a sweeping draft executive order that includes Trump’s mail voting ban, according to the Washington Post.
Trump repeatedly has said mail-in voting drives widespread fraud that led to his 2020 election loss. The claim has been rejected by the Justice and Homeland Security departments from Trump’s first presidential administration, some top Republicans and former Trump campaign officials, as well as dozens of state and federal courts.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which branch of the U.S. military Marcell Strbich served in. He is retired from the Army, not the Air Force.