01 THE SURVEILLANCE DOUBLE STANDARD
You asked who was watching.
ON THE ROAD
Where your car was
A Flock camera can capture a plate image, the camera location, and the time the car passed. Ohio residents asked who could search those records and what they could do with them. In Oxford, the city council voted to end its Flock contract. That’s what it looks like when people insist the government answer for the information it collects. 10
AT THE POLLS
Whether you voted
Ohio generally puts my name, home address, and voting history in the public voter file. Then there’s the check-in. In person, I generally have to state my full name and current address and show photo ID. I opposed making voters show photo ID in the first place. Issue 3 made that demand harder to undo. 02 04 08
If you wanted answers when the government could track your car, why did you stop asking questions when it was my privacy on the ballot?
When the state builds records around the exercise of a right, I call that a surveillance concern. Make the government justify what it collects, who can see it, and how long those records should last.
02 WHAT OHIO CAN SEE
Read the voter file.
Imagine someone has pressured you to stay home on Election Day. Your choices on the ballot are secret. Ohio’s public voter file can still tell that person whether you voted. Look at what can be tied to your name. 04 03
EXHIBIT A / OHIO VOTER FILE
What the public can see
Illustration of fields in Ohio law. The entries below are fictional.
- Full name
- Sample Ohio Voter
- Current residence address
- 100 Example Avenue
- Birth date
- January 1, 1980
- Election participation
- Ballot counted in the November 2026 election
- Primary ballot history
- Party ballot selected, when applicable
- Choices on the ballot
- SECRET BALLOT
Confidentiality exceptions apply. The last row illustrates ballot secrecy. 04
01 / POLLING PLACE CHECK-IN
What Ohio asks you to show
Ohio law generally requires your full name, current address, photo ID, and a signature in the pollbook. 02
02 / STATE CONSTITUTION
What your yes vote locked in
Issue 3 puts the in-person photo ID requirement and the accepted forms of ID in the constitution. Ohio’s public voter file comes from a separate, earlier law. The amendment makes it harder to change how voters can prove who they are at the polls. 08
03 / SECRET BALLOT
What ought to stay private
Election workers separate your identity from your ballot choices. Ballot secrecy helped curb intimidation and vote buying. I want that same concern for intimidation applied to whether I participated. 01 03
03 THE COST OF A PUBLIC VOTING HISTORY
Your voting history can become leverage.
Ohio can keep the marks on my ballot secret and still give people a way to find out whether I showed up. That information has already been used to pressure voters here.
NORTHEAST OHIO / 2022
Voters got report cards in the mail.
News 5 Cleveland documented mailers showing a recipient’s participation in the previous four general elections alongside the records of two unnamed neighbors on the same street. The sender said it used public state voter files. It also told recipients it would check whether they voted in the upcoming election. 11
RANDOMIZED STUDY / MICHIGAN
Disclosure changed turnout by 8.1 points.
In a 2006 experiment involving roughly 180,000 households, researchers mailed some households their own and their neighbors’ past voting histories and promised an updated report after the election. Turnout was 37.8% in that group and 29.7% in the no-mail group. A simple civic reminder increased turnout by 1.8 percentage points. The measured effect was on whether people voted. 12
OHIO / SAFE AT HOME
Ohio itself warns about address exposure.
Ohio law offers eligible participants confidential voter registration through Safe at Home. The law warns that voting in person can reveal a participant’s home address or precinct to the public. A participant using confidential registration votes absentee to keep that protection. 13
These examples predate Issue 3. They show what disclosure can do. Issue 3 makes it harder for Ohio to replace the photo ID checkpoint with a less intrusive way to verify voters. Public disclosure of voting histories comes from a separate law Ohio can address directly. 08
04 WHERE OHIO DRAWS THE LINE
Ohio keeps concealed-carry records private. Why publish my voting history?
Ohio Republicans knew how to make the case against government gatekeeping when firearms were at stake. When it came to voting, Republican leaders made the case for putting an ID checkpoint in the constitution. Why aren’t we putting the same pressure on lawmakers to protect our privacy?
OHIO / FIREARMS AND VOTING
Look at who gets privacy.
Ohio’s constitution protects the right to bear arms. State law limits many local firearm regulations, and it specifically shields the concealed-handgun license records sheriffs keep. Ohio can publish totals without publishing license holders’ names. That’s a deliberate choice about who gets to see a person’s information. 14
- Concealed-handgun license records
- Confidential, with specified access. Public reports give totals without names.
- Voter registration and participation
- The state generally makes names, addresses and voting histories available together, subject to exceptions. 04
THE OHIO REPUBLICAN RECORD
The same lawmakers argued two different ways.
2021–22 / CONCEALED CARRY
Republican Sen. Terry Johnson sponsored Senate Bill 215. Republican Sen. Theresa Gavarone co-sponsored it. The law lets qualifying adults carry a concealed handgun without a license. While making her case, Gavarone objected to a “government-approved license” standing between eligible Ohioans and concealed carry. 18
2026 / ISSUE 3
Gavarone and Republican Sen. Jane Timken sponsored the resolution to require in-person photo ID in the Ohio Constitution. Johnson co-sponsored it. The Ohio Republican Party urged a yes vote. I want to know why a government credential was a burden worth lifting for one right and a requirement worth locking into the constitution for another. 19
Every yes vote in the legislature came from a Republican. The House voted 62–30 and the Senate 22–9. Republican Sen. Al Cutrona voted no. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton supported Issue 3 during the campaign. The legislative push was Republican-led. 19
OHIO / DRIVER RECORDS
A permitted purpose matters.
Ohio law generally restricts disclosure of personal information from motor-vehicle records to specified uses. Bulk distribution for surveys, marketing or solicitations requires express consent. The state already knows how to limit who gets personal information. 15
OHIO / LIBRARY RECORDS
The public can get the numbers.
Ohio generally protects identifiable library records and allows libraries to release statistics that identify no user. The same principle could apply to elections. Publish how many people voted and protect the names tied to individual participation. 16
CALIFORNIA / VOTER FILES
Access can have rules.
California requires an application and an authorized purpose for access to voter files. Permitted purposes include campaigns, scholarship, journalism and government work. Commercial use is prohibited. Ohio can also ask who needs identifiable records and why. 17
Nothing should be more protected than privacy. If the government wants to publish a record of how I exercised a right, it should have to prove why the public needs my name.
05 TO THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED YES
You had a choice. Now I’m the one who has to make it.
I’m a registered Ohio voter. I opposed the original law that made me show photo ID to vote in person. I opposed Issue 3 because it put a requirement I was already fighting into the constitution. I should be able to vote without giving up more personal information than election officials can show they need.
I watched suspicion of immigrants get dressed up as election integrity. Prejudice made it easier to sell a rule the rest of us would have to live under. Lawmakers asked you to accept fear as a reason to put the photo ID mandate in the constitution. If you voted yes, I hold you responsible for helping them do it. You had the power to ask for proof before you made that choice for everybody else.
Tell me why the state needed to demand photo ID from voters in the first place. What evidence showed that a less intrusive way to verify voters would fail? That’s the question Ohio should have answered before it passed the law, and again before you voted to put it in the constitution.
Fear can make a person want a quick answer. A constitution is what we leave behind after the fear passes. We’ll still be living with your decision when the people who sold it to you have moved on.
Demand answers from Ohio lawmakers