Ohio voter drop boxes are shaping up to play an important role in the election process this fall.
Each of Ohio’s 88 counties will feature one drop box and they can be used for more than just dropping off completed ballots.
The 88 county boards of election offices must all have their drop boxes installed by Sept. 1, offering 24/7 access to Ohio voters through Election Day on Nov. 3.
For citizens not already registered to vote, they have the option of dropping off a voter registration form to their county’s box. The deadline to register in order to vote in the November General Election is Monday, Oct. 5. Blank forms are available online or at a variety of public offices. (Citizens can also register to vote online.)
For those registered and wanting to vote by mail, absentee ballot applications can be dropped off to these boxes. They can also be mailed to your county board of elections office. Blank applications are available online, and they will also be mailed out to every registered voter this fall.
Once the application is submitted and processed, the county will send you a blank absentee ballot to fill out. As with the applications, they can be dropped off in the box or mailed back.
A directory of county board of elections offices is available here. These addresses are where the drop boxes are located.
As of now, each county has only one drop box. The Ohio Democratic Party announced a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to allow counties to install multiple boxes for the fall.
Postage problems?
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wants approval from the Ohio Controlling Board to use up to $3 million from his office’s budget to pay for absentee ballot postage. As the Ohio Capital Journal has reported, LaRose’s office missed a deadline for this request to be considered during the board’s meeting this past Monday. The next meeting is set for mid-September.
Voter rights groups as well as Ohio Democrats have sought prepaid postage for applications and ballots alike. With the latest delay for approved funding, though, it appears Ohioans will be on the hook for paying postage on at least their absentee applications.
Now there is worry the September approval might be too late to secure paid postage ahead of ballots being sent out in early October.
“I definitely think the timing is concerning,” said Katy Shanahan, director of All on the Line Ohio, an advocacy group tied to the Democratic Party.
On an election security forum held Monday evening, Ohio Democrats’ Voter Protection Director Gretchen Bennett also shared concerns the delay could lead to no paid postage this fall.
But Maggie Sheehan, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State office, told the Ohio Capital Journal the belief is it will not be too late.
Regarding the funding approval delay, Sheehan said: “(T)hat creates an even tighter timeline between the potential approval from the Controlling Board and Oct. 6 when ballots begin to go out, but we are confident that boards can get that done if approved.”
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Also from Ohio Capital Journal:
Legal Analysis: Mail-in voting does not cause fraud, but judges are buying the GOP’s argument that it does
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee filed lawsuits recently against New Jersey and Nevada to prevent expansive vote-by-mail efforts in those states.
These high-profile lawsuits make the same argument that Republicans have made in many lesser-known lawsuits that were filed around the country during the primary season. In all of these lawsuits, Republicans argue that voting by mail perpetuates fraud – an argument President Donald Trump makes daily, on various media platforms.
Yet, study after study has shown that there is no basis for these claims. Indeed, the opposite is true – voting by mail is rarely subject to fraud. Twitter has even slapped warnings on President Trump’s tweets that link vote-by-mail to voter fraud, because they perpetuate false information.
Courts, for the most part, have sided with Republicans, and in some cases even adopted the unsubstantiated fraud assertions. The effect of these rulings has been that Americans had to vote in person during the global pandemic, risking their lives. By filing these lawsuits, Republicans are forcing voters to choose between being safe and exercising their fundamental right to vote in November. READ MORE
