Ohio residency rules murky

COLUMBUS

This much is crystal clear: If you move to Ohio and plan to stay and drive your car around, you will have 30 days to get an Ohio driver’s license and register your vehicle at the BMV.

That’s under a provision included in the $7 billion-plus biennial transportation budget that was signed into law a few days ago by Gov. John Kasich and set to take effect in July.

Beyond the 30-day requirement, the water gets a bid muddier when it comes to determining whether you are legally considered a resident of the state.

One day last week, Statehouse reporters were scrambling for a straight answer to a simple question: If an out-of-state college student registers to vote, thereby proclaiming that they are Ohio residents 30 days prior to an election, do they have to get Ohio driver’s licenses?

Side One says the new deadline applies to such students. Side Two says there’s no such requirement in state law or administrative code — in other words, Side One is full of beans.

The issue has been all the rage over the past couple of weeks, following an amendment added to the transportation budget by Republican senators.

Under existing law, you’re already required to get an Ohio license and transfer your plates when you move into the state, but there has been no deadline to accomplish the task.

Firm timeline

Under the Senate amendment to the transportation budget, new residents have a month to meet the requirement, marking the first time a firm time frame is included in the Ohio Revised Code.

But GOP senators added some additional language outlining what makes someone a resident, including whether he or she registered to vote here.

Democrats and voting advocates quickly voiced opposition to the amendment, saying it would dissuade out-of-state college students from voting, fearful that they could face criminal charges if they didn’t get Ohio driver’s licenses and car titles.

Worse, they said, the amendment amounted to a modern-day poll tax, forcing those students to fork over money they don’t have for licenses and plates.

Kasich smartly used his line-item veto power to strike the voting language from the final transportation budget, leaving the 30-day deadline in place.

Other than the written language of his veto message, the administration didn’t offer much additional explanation about the reasons or potential impact of the move.

For Democrats, the veto effectively dealt with the issue. Rep. Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent, an attorney who has focused on elections, is satisfied that the link between voting and driver’s license requirements has been broken.

“I am very pleased to see this harmful, ill-conceived provision come out of the transportation budget,” she said in a released statement. “Regrettably, our most fundamental democratic right has become a pawn in partisan games and even good bills get hijacked with schemes to stop people from voting. We never should have had this fight, especially in the transportation budget bill. Thank you for doing the right thing today, Gov. Kasich.”

But a spokesman for the Senate GOP Caucus said he believes the effect remains the same, regardless of Kasich’s veto.

“Based on administrative rule or code and to the extent the BMV would enforce the administrative code, any adult would have to get an Ohio license within 30 days of declaring residency if they plan to drive,” said John Fortney. “… If you register to vote in the state of Ohio, you are declaring residency as an Ohioan.”

So who’s right?

Legally speaking, I have to believe Clyde.

But in practice?

People registering to vote attest to being “a resident of Ohio for at least 30 days immediately before the election in which you want to vote.”

While residency for voter registration and residency for driving privileges are different matters by law, I can envision mailings to out-of-state college students in advance of future elections warning them of the potential criminal penalties for not getting Ohio driver’s licenses if they plan to vote.

Whether that’s true or not is beside the point.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.