XENIA, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday he is happy the Ohio Legislature passed both bills that he called them into special session to tackle. One makes sure President Joe Biden is on the Ohio ballot for the November election. The other bans foreign money in statewide ballot initiative campaigns.
The governor signed them into law Sunday.
"It was a ridiculous situation that we're talking about that Biden might not be on the ballot in the fall, and the legislature did both of those things," DeWine said. "So, I'm very happy, and it was the right thing to do."
House Bill 2 moves Ohio's deadline to certify major political party presidential and vice presidential candidates for the November election from Aug. 7 to Sept. 1. That means the deadline now falls after the Democratic National Convention, which starts August 19.
Even though the legislature passed the new law, the DNC said Friday it still plans to hold a virtual roll call to nominate the president and vice president before the convention as it announced earlier last week.
The governor also signed House Bill 1 Sunday. It bans foreign nationals, including lawful permanent U.S residents, or green card holders, from contributing to statewide ballot initiative campaigns.
Opponents have argued it will have a chilling effect on participation in those campaigns because of the fear of penalties under the law and the uncertainty of how it will be applied.
"I don't think there's any chilling effect," DeWine said. "We've seen here in Ohio that people can get an issue on the ballot and they can get it passed. We're a state that has that right. We continue to have that right."
He was referring to last November's election when Ohioans passed initiatives protecting access to abortion and legalizing recreational marijuana.
Some Republicans also raised concerns the new foreign money law will get rejected in court because of the ban on green card holders making contributions to campaigns.
"Changing this long departure from federal law, a critical free speech issue is going to cause this bill to get struck down," State Senator Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) argued during the Senate's special session Friday before the vote approving the bill.
DeWine expects opponents to sue over the law.
"Look, everything is going to be challenged in court today," DeWine said. "So, we'll see what the courts do."
The governor added "If you ask the average Ohioan out here do you think if you're not a U.S. citizen you should be able to contribute money to defeat an issue or pass an issue in Ohio, they wouldn't think that was a good idea at all."
The bills go into effect 90 days after the governor signed them, which is a couple months before the November election.