Ohio May Presidential Primary Bill -- Sans Emergency Clause -- Passes State House

Despite all the uproar from Ohio House Democrats earlier in the week, the Republican majority today went ahead with separate pieces of legislation dealing with a new redistricting proposal and moving the Buckeye state presidential primary back to May. House Democrats, upset with the new district maps, threatened to withhold support for the bill moving the presidential primary from March to May. As FHQ pointed out in the post linked above, however, the Democratic threat was only applicable if Republicans were insistent about the measure taking effect immediately. The House majority apparently was not, as the emergency clause -- the mechanism by which the law would have taken effect upon gubernatorial signature -- was removed and the bill was passed by the full House. Instead of taking effect immediately, the bill would become law 90 days after being signed by Governor John Kasich (R).

HB 318 -- the House version of SB 217 -- now heads to the Senate for consideration, and the Ohio primary is one step closer to moving to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May for the second time.

NOTE: The Ohio legislative website does not have the vote tally up at this time, but the AP is reporting the bill has passed and the page for HB 318 marks the bill "As passed by the House".

UPDATE: The final vote was 63-29 in favor of HB 318.

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