By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County may not be able to install more ballot boxes – but it can replace the current box with a bigger model.
On Thursday, the county commissioners will consider purchasing a new ballot drop box for $1,051. Since the larger box is needed in part due to COVID-19 and the public’s desire to avoid crowded polling places on election day Nov. 3, CARES funding will be used to help with the purchase.
Terry Burton, director of the Wood County Board of Elections, said Wednesday that the new ballot drop box will be put to good use during the upcoming election.
“We’ve had this box for 10 years,” he said. “We’re getting a bigger one.”
In this year’s primary election, approximately 17,000 voters dropped off ballots in the box outside the Wood County Courthouse. The general election will see more – with 18,366 ballots already being requested as of Wednesday.
“Especially on the weekends, we want to have that extra capacity,” Burton said.
Ballots will begin going out to voters who requested them on Oct. 6. The return box is open round the clock for people to drop off their completed ballots.
The new box will be marked just as the current one is – with bold print stating “Board of Election.” Even with that marking, some voters misplace their completed ballots in the box labeled for tax payments.
“The treasurer’s office brings it to us if it gets in the wrong box,” Burton said.
As it stands now, each county in Ohio can only have one drop box for ballots.
Last month, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a directive restricting counties to one drop box each, located at the county board of elections.
Additional ballot boxes are a hot topic this year since spring primary voting was hampered by virus concerns, the U.S. Postal Service has faced cutbacks, and Trump has urged against mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that the process is rigged.
Officials in Cuyahoga County, home to Democratic-leaning Cleveland, said last week that they would like to allow ballots to be collected at six public libraries. That action has been halted because of a lawsuit.
LaRose argued that the number of drop boxes per county must be uniform to be fair, and that lawmakers had made clear in a law passed this spring that ballots had to be mailed or personally delivered to county board of elections directors.
Siding with LaRose in the case are the state GOP, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Trump for America campaign.
Last week, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye blocked the order that counties are limited to one dropbox.
But on Monday, GOP leaders told a state appellate court that the county judge overstepped his authority when he blocked it. They asked the state’s 10th District Court of Appeals to toss Frye’s decision.
Oral arguments in the Ohio case are scheduled for Friday, according to the Associated Press.
