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

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.

A Yost spokeswoman wrote in an email that his office was prepared to issue an opinion this week before LaRose withdrew his request.

LaRose also has asked Yost whether it is legal for county boards of elections to offer multiple drop boxes within their county. LaRose won’t allow those, though, because he said he believes it would invite litigation.

In his new directive, LaRose spelled out requirements for the drop boxes, including remote monitoring and retrieval of ballots by board employees from both parties.

Ohioans can request absentee ballots until the Saturday before the election, and ballots will be mailed starting Oct. 6. Here’s how you can request an absentee ballot.

LaRose, though, cautioned voters against waiting until the last minute to request a ballot. Voters who request their ballot on deadline day likely won’t receive ballots quickly enough for them to be returned in time to be counted.

“Procrastination is always a bad idea. Ask any college student. Procrastination is an even worse idea when we’re running an election in the midst of a pandemic and when we know the U.S. Postal Service is not operating at peak efficiency,” LaRose said.

LaRose backed a proposal to move up that deadline for the general election, but lawmakers did not act on that or several other requests he made in April.

The difference between what LaRose is authorized to do under Ohio law and what he needs permission from state lawmakers to accomplish has been the source of great disagreement between the Republican secretary of state and Democrats.

LaRose believes he needs legislators to give him authority to create an online absentee ballot request system that bypasses mail-in procedures and to pay for postage on absentee ballots. The Ohio Democratic Party has sued LaRose to try to force him to offer online requests as an option for the general election.

But Democrats have said he does not need a change in Ohio law. For example, they point to LaRose working through the Ohio Controlling Board, which authorizes spending, to pay for sending absentee ballot requests to all registered voters, as a path to paying for postage.

“It’s just ridiculous to me that he keeps blaming the legislature for not acting,” said Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Cleveland Democrat who has proposed elections administration changes in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Ohio law specifies that boards of elections cannot pay for postage but is silent on whether the secretary of state can. LaRose said Wednesday that he and previous secretaries of state have interpreted that law to apply to them as well.

On Wednesday, LaRose sought to reassure voters who are worried about the security of voting by mail in Ohio and Election Day moving from Nov. 3. Ohio has multiple checks, done at bipartisan boards of elections, to identify that absentee ballots came from the correct voter, he said.

Election Day, he pointed out, is prescribed in federal law, unlike Ohio’s primary, which moves from year to year. The 2020 primary changed after Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration shuttered the polls hours before they were set to open on March 17 to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

Ohio also will continue to offer 28 days of in-person early voting in all 88 counties, LaRose said.

But LaRose continues to urge Ohioans to vote by mail to slow the spread of the coronavirus and says he plans to do so himself. He said masks will be required for poll workers and encouraged for voters, but voters who aren’t wearing one will not be turned away.

Curbside voting will be offered as well, he said.

LaRose is projecting record turnout for the general election and expects as many as half of ballots could be cast by mail.

That means the results in Ohio could change after election night as legally eligible absentee ballots are counted in the days and weeks that follow.

“That doesn’t mean something nefarious has happened,” he said.

This report is from The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today network