A United States district court has temporarily halted an Ohio law that required citizenship proof from residents registering to vote, while they obtained a driver's license. The ruling, issued by Judge Solomon Oliver Jr on Tuesday, granted a preliminary injunction against the law, asserting it likely contravenes the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) as it requests excessive information to ascertain a resident's voting eligibility. In his decision, Judge Oliver noted that election officials do not require documentary evidence of citizenship to verify a voter registration applicant's citizenship status, and that signed attestation suffices. Furthermore, the judge pointed out a provision in the act which states each US state's driver's license application serves as an application for federal office voting registration unless the applicant fails to sign the voter registration form. Ohio was expected to offer applicants the chance to register upon submission of their driver's license application rather than after approval by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), according to Judge Oliver. He argued that interpreting this section of the NVRA otherwise could make Ohio voter registration at the BMV more burdensome, potentially resulting in fewer registrations among eligible citizens. The law, originally passed as a 'motor-voter' law in 1995, was amended last year by the Republican-controlled state legislature as part of an effort to combat unsubstantiated allegations, pushed by US President Donald Trump, that noncitizens were voting in Ohio elections. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. This ruling represents a triumph for voting rights advocates like Red Wine & Blue, who sued Ohio's secretary of state, Frank LaRose, over claims that the law disenfranchised eligible voters and violated the NVRA. One of the group's lawyers, Ben Stafford, commended the decision, stating it was "a win for Ohio voters." However, LaRose's office has expressed disagreement with the ruling and plans to appeal.