COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohioans would automatically be registered to vote upon applying for or renewing a driver’s license or other state-issued ID, under a proposed constitutional amendment submitted to the state on Wednesday.

The amendment, backed by the ACLU and other groups, also would allow eligible Ohioans to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day throughout the early voting period. This would reinstate and expand what previously was referred to as “Golden Week,” which state lawmakers eliminated in 2014.

The amendment campaign group, Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections, is targeting the presidential election in November for the amendment. Another element of the proposed amendment is a required, statewide post-election audit.

The group announced Wednesday it had submitted paperwork, including a summary of the proposed amendment and the amendment text itself, to the state Attorney General’s Office. The filing is the first part of a multi-step process that eventually will require the amendment campaign to gather signatures from hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters across the state.

The state Attorney General’s Office now has 10 business days to determine whether the proposed ballot language is an accurate and fair summary of the proposed amendment.

“The ACLU, in 2020, will do what we have done for more than a hundred years: work to protect civil liberties and expand civil rights, especially the right to vote— nationwide and in Ohio,” J. Bennett Guess, executive director for the ACLU in Ohio, said in a statement. "In the process of building a non-partisan, broadly representative buckeye coalition, we’ve had ongoing conversations with Ohio veterans, faith-based groups, members of the disability rights community, advocacy and legal organizations, and the consensus is clear: it’s time to remove unnecessary barriers to the ballot and make sure that our elections are secure and fair, ensuring all eligible voters are heard and our democracy is strengthened.”

The proposed automatic-voter registration amendment is similar to a proposal, also backed by the ACLU, that was approved last year by Michigan voters by a 2-to-1-margin. That measure was backed by a $4 million campaign, funded by the ACLU, labor unions and other progressive groups.

The proposed Ohio amendment would include an opt-out provision for those who don’t want to register to vote.

The proposed constitutional amendment is the latest automatic-voter registration proposal introduced in recent months. But the other two proposals, pending in each of the state legislature’s two chambers, have gained little traction since they were introduced.

One, a Senate bill backed by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, is a less expansive proposal that would streamline voter registration for BMV customers while laying the groundwork for future simple voter registration for Ohioans interacting with other state agencies. That bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Nathan Manning and Democratic Sen. Vernon Sykes, has received only a perfunctory initial committee hearing since it was introduced last August.

LaRose, a Republican who is the state’s top elections official, referenced that bill when asked about the new proposed amendment.

“I’ve championed reforms to Ohio’s voter registration system for years, so I welcome all Ohioans to lend their voices to that debate,” LaRose said in a statement. “The devil is always in the details with these things, and history tells us that often times reforms should be debated and determined by the General Assembly rather than being enshrined in the Constitution. Major, successful change comes when Republicans and Democrats in the legislature work together, and that’s happening right now in the Ohio Senate with our bipartisan legislation that would modernize Ohio’s entire voter registration system.”

Another similar proposal, a House bill introduced last week by state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney and other Democratic lawmakers, goes further in who is automatically registered to vote, applying to high-school seniors as well.

The automatic voter registration measure is the second proposed constitutional amendment submitted for the November ballot in the past week. Last Friday, organized labor activists submitted a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13 an hour.