Secretary of State Frank LaRose said lawmakers should consider eliminating ballot drop boxes after a federal court ruled that Ohio law violates the rights of people with disabilities who need help voting absentee.
Advocates sued over a rule allowing only certain family members to return absentee ballots on behalf of relatives who are hospitalized or homebound because of an illness or disability. The list includes spouses, parents, siblings and grandparents, but not grandchildren or caretakers.
U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan said the law runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act, which allows voters with disabilities to get assistance from anyone except their employer or union representative.
More: Ohio purged 155,000 voters from the rolls. See if your registration was affected
In response, LaRose will require people helping voters with disabilities to bring ballots inside the board of elections office and sign a form confirming that they’re following the rules. That means Ohioans may only place their own ballots in a drop box.
But LaRose wants lawmakers to go a step further. In a letter to GOP legislative leaders last week, first reported by the Toledo Blade, he urged them to revisit the state’s ban on “ballot harvesting” − a critical term for ballot collection − and potentially get rid of drop boxes down the line.
Ohio permits only one drop box per county located at the board of elections. About 34,000 people returned absentee ballots via drop box during the March primary, according to the secretary of state’s office.
“This (ruling) effectively creates an unintended loophole in Ohio’s ballot harvesting law that we must address,” LaRose wrote. “I suspect this is exactly the outcome the (League of Women Voters of Ohio) intended. Under the guise of assisting the disabled, their legal strategy seeks to make Ohio’s elections less secure and more vulnerable to cheating, especially as it relates to the use of drop boxes.”
A spokesperson for the League did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LaRose calls for changes as he touts Ohio voting laws
LaRose’s request came despite his frequent boasts that Ohio voting laws are secure and effective ahead of the November election.
In the same letter, LaRose asked GOP leaders to require proof of citizenship on voter registration forms after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a similar policy to take effect in Arizona. Ohioans must be U.S. citizens to vote in federal, state and local elections and attest to that on the current registration form.
LaRose argued proof on the front-end would save his office time on audits of the state’s voter rolls. Election officials recently referred 597 non-U.S. citizens who were registered to vote for prosecution, including 138 who cast a ballot, according to the letter. They also removed 499 non-citizens from the voter rolls in the latest purge of registrations.
There are about 8 million registered voters in Ohio.
LaRose also called on lawmakers to require Ohioans to cast provisional ballots if their voter file doesn’t match information provided to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles or Social Security Administration. Any changes considered by the Legislature wouldn’t be in effect for the Nov. 5 election.
“This is another example of always disappointing, never surprising behavior from a politician with an ever-growing list of losses desperate to be relevant,” Ohio Democratic Party chair Liz Walters said. “LaRose knows that Ohioans see through his extreme, unpopular policies. His job is to help Ohioans vote but he tries to make it more difficult every chance he gets.”
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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Publish date : 2024-09-02 15:00:00
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