Ohio law requires that every voter, upon appearing at the polling place to vote on Election Day, to announce his or her full name and current address and provide photo ID as proof of the voter's identity.
The forms of identification that may be used by a voter who appears at a polling place to vote on an Election Day include:
- Ohio driver’s license, state ID card, or interim ID form issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (“BMV”).
- This includes a commercial driver’s license, motorcycle operator’s license, probationary or restricted license, or temporary instruction permit.
- An interim identification form is a BMV document issued to a person who has just applied for a driver’s license or state ID card, to use until the permanent card arrives in the mail;
- U.S. passport or passport card; or
- U.S. military ID card, Ohio National Guard ID card, or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card (collectively referenced in this Directive as “military ID”).
Note: A suspended driver’s license that is not expired may still be used as photo identification for voting.
A voter presenting an Ohio driver’s license that shows the voter’s former address is permitted to cast a regular ballot so long as the voter’s current residential address is printed in the official poll list of registered voters for that precinct.
Voters without ID may still cast a provisional ballot when they appear in person to vote. Those voters will have four days after Election Day to appear at the board of elections office to show photo ID (except in the case of a religious objector, as described below). Voters must show a photo ID or provide a copy of an acceptable form of ID. It is not sufficient to provide the Ohio driver’s license number or state ID card number or the last four digits of the voter’s SSN.
For Voter I.D. purposes "current" means the document was issued on a date within one year immediately preceding the date of the election at which the voter seeks to vote or has on it an expiration date which has not passed as of the date of the election in which the voter seeks to vote.
Religious Objectors
If a voter does not have a photo ID because of a religious objection to being photographed, the precinct election official or board staff, as applicable, must provide the voter an affidavit of religious objection on a form provided by the Secretary of State. This may occur either when the voter casts the provisional ballot or at the office of the board by the fourth day after Election Day. Election officials must attach the affidavit to the provisional ballot affirmation. The board must transmit the completed affidavit of religious objection to the Secretary’s Office, which then must consult the BMV’s database to determine whether they issued a currently unexpired photo ID to that voter.
The affidavit of religious objection is not valid if the BMV has issued a currently unexpired photo ID or if the last four digits of the voter’s SSN provided on the affidavit do not match those digits in the Statewide Voter Registration Database.