Nobody gets it right every time, and Ohio's top election official, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who generally has done good work in clearing a path for strong ballot access this fall, is a case in point.
These are challenging days for people who run elections, in Ohio and everywhere, since an unpredictable pandemic leaves real questions about the ability to conduct full-scale, in-person voting for the general election on Nov. 3. President Donald Trump isn't helping the matter by consistently sowing unfounded fears of vote-by-mail fraud, and, more recently, doing the same about an alternative, ballot drop boxes.
But as the Associated Press pointed out, drop boxes "have been used with success for several years in states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado that rely largely or entirely on ballots that must be sent in." Their use is being expanded, the AP said, "because of the coronavirus outbreak and, more recently, concerns about the post office's ability to do its job." But their use is controversial, as officials in some states argue that drop boxes are too costly, raise security concerns or violate state laws.
LaRose's current approach on drop boxes is a compromise that satisfies no one.
The Republican plans to have one drop box in each of Ohio's 88 counties. He says he would need legislative authority or clearance from state Attorney General Dave Yost to add more, and that it's too late in the process to get such approval from Yost.
On its face, the one-drop-box-per-county approach is silly. It might work just fine in Ohio's smaller counties. But in big counties like Cuyahoga, where the sole drop box would be at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections headquarters, it's wholly inadequate. The AP notes that according to a memo issued by federal authorities in response to the pandemic, it's recommended that there's one drop box for every 15,000 to 20,000 registered voters. It's probably too late to match that ratio for Cuyahoga County, where more than 600,000 people voted in the 2016 presidential election, but surely LaRose knows that one isn't enough if the drop box option is to be a realistic way for voters to cast their ballots this year. He should push the Republican-controlled state Legislature to provide the authority to place multiple drop boxes in larger counties — say, the 27 with populations above 100,000.
To his credit, though, LaRose announced last week that he's asking the Ohio Controlling Board for permission to use up to $3 million from a fund within his office to pay for the postage on mailed ballots for the general election. Approval of the request "will effectively be making every mailbox a drop box for millions of Ohioans, making it easier than ever to cast a ballot in a general election," LaRose said in a statement.
The money would come from the Business Services Division fund of the Secretary of State's office. That fund is relatively flush these days because Ohioans are breaking records for new business filings. LaRose's office reported last week that there were 18,483 new business filings in July, breaking (by 15%) the previous record of 16,047, which was set in June. Filings are up 65% from July 2019. This is the result, obviously, of people getting entrepreneurial after losing their jobs during the pandemic.
The money is there, so the seven-member state Controlling Board, which provides legislative oversight over certain capital and operating expenditures by state agencies, should waste no time in approving LaRose's request.
The secretary of state noted that about 1.2 million Ohioans cast their ballot by mail in the 2016 general election, but he has told county boards of elections to prepare for that number to double, or perhaps increase by even more than that, given concerns about in-person voting due to the pandemic. Those who want to vote in person should by all means do so. But the state must make sure, in the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, that all who want to vote can do so safely and securely, by mail and at drop boxes.
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August 23, 2020 at 03:00PM
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Crain's editorial: All of the above - Crain's Cleveland Business
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