Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose called Wednesday for legislative reform of the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC), a 50-year-old panel of bipartisan political appointees responsible for enforcing Ohio’s election laws.

The Ohio House’s version of the budget would eliminate the independent group charged with enforcing state campaign finance laws. With the Ohio Election Commission gone, those duties would fall to the Secretary of State and county boards of elections. Lawmakers slipped the provision into the 5,000-plus page bill as part of a wide-ranging amendment the day before the vote.