Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose: no extra ballot drop boxes for November election

Updated Aug 12, 2020; Posted Aug 12, 2020

By Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Wednesday he is banning county boards of elections from offering more than one drop box for completed absentee ballots this November, saying it’s grown too late to make changes to how Ohio will administer this year’s presidential election.

LaRose, a Republican, more than three weeks ago formally asked Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, also a Republican, for a legal opinion on whether the extra drop boxes were allowed under state law.

But LaRose said Wednesday Yost had not yet responded, and that it’s now too late make such an election change. Early voting in Ohio begins on Oct. 6, while the election is on Nov. 3. He said offering extra drop boxes, which Democrats and voting-rights activists say is legal, would invite lawsuits that could upend the process of preparing for the election.

The move led to a swift reaction from Democrats, who accused LaRose of voter suppression, saying the request of Yost was just a charade that would allow LaRose to eventually run out the clock.

Voting-rights advocates and elections officials, including in Cleveland, had requested extra drop-boxes at locations such as public libraries as a way to reduce in-person voting lines and relieve pressure on the mail system. Elections officials expect an unprecedented level of interest in mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose OKs one voting drop box per county

By Rick Rouan
The Columbus Dispatch
Posted Aug 12, 2020 at 1:24 PM

Ohioans will be able to cast absentee ballots in drop boxes at their county boards of elections, but Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned voters against waiting to request their ballots.

Ballots requested at the last minute are “highly unlikely” to be counted, LaRose said during a Wednesday news conference.

LaRose previously has said he was unsure if he had the authority to mandate drop boxes, as the Ohio General Assembly did for the 2020 primary, conducted mostly by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he has not received a response to his request for a legal opinion from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and LaRose said he can’t wait any longer to give direction to 88 county boards of elections.

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