Ohio Democrats on Tuesday sued the state’s top election official over his refusal to provide more ballot drop boxes for absentee voters in the battleground state.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, recently decided that each of Ohio’s 88 counties will get only one drop box to collect absentee ballots in the 2020 election. LaRose has claimed he is open to having more drop boxes, but has said his hands are tied by the current state laws on the books.
The Ohio Democratic Party argues that LaRose already has the authority to add more drop boxes, and that the state needs more this year because of the major increase in absentee voting because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democrats also fear how a recent slowdown in mail delivery could block votes from being counted, and want more options for voters to deliver their ballots before Election Day, their complaint said.
“Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, elections officials in Ohio are projecting a marked increase in the use of absentee voting compared to prior elections,” the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Franklin County, Ohio, said. The Democrats want the court to conclude that “Ohio law does not prohibit county boards of elections from having more than one secure drop box for the return of absentee ballots or from designating additional locations other than outside the board’s office.”
Drop boxes have become a major flashpoint in the national battle over voting access.
President Donald Trump has railed against drop boxes as part of his larger efforts to discourage mail-in voting. Trump’s opposition even caused Twitter to tell its users the President violated its policies by trying to dissuade people from voting, when he tweeted this weekend that drop boxes weren’t “Covid sanitized,” a fear-stoking comment that isn’t in line with science.