Gov. John Kasich on Friday vetoed a bill that critics said would have imposed a poll tax on voters seeking to keep polling places open due to emergencies.
The bill would have required voters seeking an extension for voting hours in county courts to post bond equal to the estimated cost of keeping polling places open, which could total tens of thousands of dollars. If the court decided against keeping the polls open, the voter would lose the bond.
GOP lawmakers said the requirement and others in the bill were needed after cases in which Southwest Ohio judges kept the polls open, in their opinion, unnecessarily.
Kasich, in his veto message, agreed there is a need to create a uniform process for county common pleas judges considering such requests. But he said the provision that eliminated a judge’s discretion to waive the bond went too far.
“I look forward to working with the General Assembly in the future to see this process become law,” Kasich said.
Kasich rarely wields his veto pen as fellow Republicans control both the Ohio House and Senate. The bill was only the second vetoed by Kasich since he took office in 2011. That year, he vetoed Republican lawmakers’ first attempt to regulate water withdrawal from Lake Erie under the Great Lakes Compact.
Secretary of State Jon Husted supported legislation to set rules for common pleas courts reviewing requests to extend voting hours but said before the bill passed that he didn’t support the bond requirement.
In a statement Friday, Husted said he respected Kasich’s veto decision and will work with him and the legislature to address last minute changes to voting rules by state judges.
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