Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio’s 88 counties will each have one ballot drop box available to use for the General Election, Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Wednesday.
LaRose made the directive to all county boards of elections.
At a news conference on Wednesday, LaRose said he had asked the Ohio Attorney General’s office for legal insight as to whether counties could add more than one drop box. Voter rights advocates had called for additional drop boxes as a means of improving voting access.
Believing he did not have sole authority to allow more drop boxes, along with not wanting to keep waiting for the attorney general’s answer, LaRose used his authority to restrict each county to one apiece this fall.
LaRose is encouraging the state legislature to take up the issue for future elections. He has similarly called on lawmakers to approve several other policy proposals, such as allowing online absentee ballot applications and paying for prepaid postage on elections mail.
Voting rights advocates say additional drop boxes would allow citizens to cast ballots without dealing with Election Day crowds or potential delays with the postal system.
Gary Daniels, the chief lobbyist for the ACLU of Ohio, took issue with the secretary’s interpretation of his legal authority:https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=tylerjoelb&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1293615714864115713&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fohiocapitaljournal.com%2Fbriefs%2Flarose-each-county-to-have-one-ballot-drop-box-this-fall%2F&siteScreenName=OhioCapJournal&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px
Wait a second. SOS LaRose claims to not have legal authority to *allow* extra drop boxes for ballots (or that it is at least an open question). But thinks he does have the authority to *prevent* extra drop boxes via SOS directive? How….interesting.
— Gary Daniels (@gdanielsohio) August 12, 2020
Several Democratic Party officials and lawmakers were more direct in their criticism.
“I am frankly sickened by Secretary of State LaRose’s actions today,” said state Sen. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, in a provided statement. “This is an attack on voting rights in Ohio, plain and simple.”
***
Also from Ohio Capital Journal:
Mailbag: Answering readers’ questions about the election and DeWine
It’s a testament to the craziness of 2020 that we aren’t talking more about Kanye West.
It was only a week ago we learned the Kanye West presidential campaign (it’s weird even typing those words) filed petitions with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office to appear on the 2020 ballot as an independent.
In a normal year, that would be big (albeit strange) news. But it is 2020, so of course it got lost in a blur of successive bombshell headlines.
President Trump visited northern Ohio the next morning. Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of greeting the president. Then a second, more reliable test came back negative.
Kanye who? READ MORE
Amid questions, Medicaid director has governor’s confidence
The performance of Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran has come under scrutiny in recent weeks, but she retains the confidence of Gov. Mike Dewine.
The governor appointed Corcoran to lead the $27 billion-a-year agency in January 2019, after it had experienced a series of controversies involving the pricing and acquisition of prescription drugs. They included a 2018 study showing that pharmacy middlemen a year earlier billed the state $244 million more for prescription drugs than the middlemen paid pharmacists to dispense them.
Since then, pharmacists around the state — particularly those with a large Medicaid clientele — say problems with low reimbursements under the program continue.
Also, they’re frustrated that they still haven’t received any of the $100 million the legislature appropriated last year to offset those losses. READ MORE
