- Ohio
«
Absentee
Ballot Litigation
Absentee Ballot Litigation
drop boxes - absentee ballot requests by email
or fax - signature match
Ohio Secretary of State
Frank LaRose
October 5, 2020
As a result of LaRose’s two recent directives, all 88 county boards of elections are now required to accept absentee ballots 24/7 via secure receptacles at their office and election officials are able to collect completed absentee ballots outside of the county board of elections at convenient drive-through ballot drop offs. Ohio voters now have more options to return absentee ballots than ever before. These options are in addition to the most convenient and commonly used method for voters to return absentee ballots - by mail - which continues to be a safe and standard method for absentee voting. Additionally, voters may cast a vote early in-person or in-person on election day.
As has become all too clear in the recent litigation over secure receptacles (or “drop boxes”), what the General Assembly meant when it required in R.C. 3509.05 -- that if not mailed, absentee ballots must be personally delivered “to the director” and in no other manner -- must be clarified by the legislature. Secretary LaRose will ask the legislature to partner with him when the next General Assembly begins its term in January to provide the necessary clarity.
On October 2nd, David Becker, a noted and respected elections expert stated the following:
According to the Center for Election Innovation & Research website, Becker is the Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. Prior to CEIR, he served as Director of the elections program at The Pew Charitable Trusts, driving reforms in election administration, including using technology to provide voters with information they need to cast a ballot; assessing election performance through better data; and upgrading voter registration systems. Before Pew, he served for seven years as a senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where he led numerous investigations into violations of federal voting laws regarding redistricting, minority voting rights, voter intimidation, and vote dilution.
“Tomorrow, absentee ballots will begin being mailed out to over 2 million Ohioans who requested them and voting starts at 88 early voting locations across the state in what will be the most accessible election in state history,” said LaRose. “Despite predictable partisan politics that attempt to create phony crises, we have kept our eye on the ball and Ohio’s election officials are ready to administer a safe, secure, and accurate election.“
Just as Ohio is a clear leader in early voting with 216 hours including evenings and weekends, Ohio is also a national model for absentee voting. Of the 42 states that run a traditional absentee voting system, a comprehensive review by the Brookings Institute determined no state does it better than Ohio.
SOURCE: www.brookings.edu/research/voting-by-mail-in-a-pandemic-a-state-by-state-scorecard/(opens in a new window)
More than 2 million Ohioans have requested an absentee ballot – putting Ohio on pace to more than double the number of ballots cast by mail in 2016. Election mail is expected to be efficiently and effectively transported to county boards of elections. Ohio law allows boards of elections to receive ballots up to ten days after the election as long as they are postmarked by November 2nd. The United States Postal Service has committed to implementing the following protocols at the urging of Secretary LaRose:
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose
September 12, 2020
“A stay pending appeal is a routine component of the legal process and it was absolutely the right decision by the court. Without the stay, it would be open season for hackers to attack our boards IT systems. Ohioans need to understand that forcing our county boards to open thousands of e-mailed attachments is not a secure online absentee ballot request system. It puts our elections system at a far greater risk of cyberattack where just one attachment with a malicious virus could cripple an entire county’s IT infrastructure and degrade the trust voters have in our elections.”
It's important to note that the order from the Franklin County Common Pleas Court did not create a secure online ballot request system in Ohio. Referring to it in any way as an online ballot request system is inaccurate.
A secure online ballot request system doesn’t utilize e-mail or faxes. Instead, it includes fields to securely provide voter information without an ability to send attachments.
Instead, the Franklin County judge allowed for ballot requests to be transmitted by fax or by sending a picture of a ballot request form to a county’s e-mail address. That means a much more appropriate descriptor is an e-mail/fax ballot request system, or something similar.
Download the Emergency Stay Order (PDF)(opens in a new window)
Ohio Democratic Party
August 12, 2020
October 5, 2020
LAROSE ISSUES DIRECTIVE ON ADDITIONAL OPTIONS TO RETURN ABSENTEE BALLOTS
COLUMBUS – Today, Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued Directive 2020-22(opens in a new window), making it clear that 1) every Ohio county board of elections may install more than one secure receptacle at their board for the return of absentee ballots, and 2) the board may station bipartisan election officials outside of county boards to accept absentee ballots.As a result of LaRose’s two recent directives, all 88 county boards of elections are now required to accept absentee ballots 24/7 via secure receptacles at their office and election officials are able to collect completed absentee ballots outside of the county board of elections at convenient drive-through ballot drop offs. Ohio voters now have more options to return absentee ballots than ever before. These options are in addition to the most convenient and commonly used method for voters to return absentee ballots - by mail - which continues to be a safe and standard method for absentee voting. Additionally, voters may cast a vote early in-person or in-person on election day.
As has become all too clear in the recent litigation over secure receptacles (or “drop boxes”), what the General Assembly meant when it required in R.C. 3509.05 -- that if not mailed, absentee ballots must be personally delivered “to the director” and in no other manner -- must be clarified by the legislature. Secretary LaRose will ask the legislature to partner with him when the next General Assembly begins its term in January to provide the necessary clarity.
On October 2nd, David Becker, a noted and respected elections expert stated the following:
According to the Center for Election Innovation & Research website, Becker is the Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. Prior to CEIR, he served as Director of the elections program at The Pew Charitable Trusts, driving reforms in election administration, including using technology to provide voters with information they need to cast a ballot; assessing election performance through better data; and upgrading voter registration systems. Before Pew, he served for seven years as a senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where he led numerous investigations into violations of federal voting laws regarding redistricting, minority voting rights, voter intimidation, and vote dilution.
“Tomorrow, absentee ballots will begin being mailed out to over 2 million Ohioans who requested them and voting starts at 88 early voting locations across the state in what will be the most accessible election in state history,” said LaRose. “Despite predictable partisan politics that attempt to create phony crises, we have kept our eye on the ball and Ohio’s election officials are ready to administer a safe, secure, and accurate election.“
Just as Ohio is a clear leader in early voting with 216 hours including evenings and weekends, Ohio is also a national model for absentee voting. Of the 42 states that run a traditional absentee voting system, a comprehensive review by the Brookings Institute determined no state does it better than Ohio.
SOURCE: www.brookings.edu/research/voting-by-mail-in-a-pandemic-a-state-by-state-scorecard/(opens in a new window)
More than 2 million Ohioans have requested an absentee ballot – putting Ohio on pace to more than double the number of ballots cast by mail in 2016. Election mail is expected to be efficiently and effectively transported to county boards of elections. Ohio law allows boards of elections to receive ballots up to ten days after the election as long as they are postmarked by November 2nd. The United States Postal Service has committed to implementing the following protocols at the urging of Secretary LaRose:
- USPS will institute “all clear” processes at each sorting facility to ensure all election mail is processed each day.
- Staff will recheck collection bins each day to ensure late arriving ballots are retrieved.
- USPS will set up hand-to-hand delivery for election mail as it makes its way through processing on the Saturday prior to Election Day, from the board of elections to the distribution center.
- Postal facilities will track election mail deliveries to Ohio’s boards of elections
- Election mail will not be routed through the Detroit Regional Distribution Center. Instead it will be kept in-state.
###
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose
September 12, 2020
LAROSE ISSUES STATEMENT ON COURT DECISION TO STAY JUDGE'S ORDER FOR COUNTY BOARDS OF ELECTIONS TO ACCEPT ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS BY FAX OR E-MAIL
COLUMBUS – Today Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a statement on the decision of the Tenth Court of Appeals (PDF)(opens in a new window) to grant an emergency stay of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas order to accept absentee ballot requests by fax or e-mail:“A stay pending appeal is a routine component of the legal process and it was absolutely the right decision by the court. Without the stay, it would be open season for hackers to attack our boards IT systems. Ohioans need to understand that forcing our county boards to open thousands of e-mailed attachments is not a secure online absentee ballot request system. It puts our elections system at a far greater risk of cyberattack where just one attachment with a malicious virus could cripple an entire county’s IT infrastructure and degrade the trust voters have in our elections.”
It's important to note that the order from the Franklin County Common Pleas Court did not create a secure online ballot request system in Ohio. Referring to it in any way as an online ballot request system is inaccurate.
A secure online ballot request system doesn’t utilize e-mail or faxes. Instead, it includes fields to securely provide voter information without an ability to send attachments.
Instead, the Franklin County judge allowed for ballot requests to be transmitted by fax or by sending a picture of a ballot request form to a county’s e-mail address. That means a much more appropriate descriptor is an e-mail/fax ballot request system, or something similar.
Download the Emergency Stay Order (PDF)(opens in a new window)
###
Ohio Democratic Party
August 12, 2020
Frank LaRose Makes It Harder For Ohioans To Return Absentee Ballots
LaRose Bans County Boards of Elections From Providing Multiple Secure Dropboxes for Absentee BallotsCOLUMBUS — After stonewalling for weeks by requesting and then awaiting a completely unnecessary legal opinion from fellow Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose apparently didn’t need the legal opinion after all, as he issued a directive today banning county boards of elections from providing multiple secure dropboxes for voters to return their absentee ballots.
“Ohioans have used secure dropboxes to return their absentee ballots for years — and it was never a problem until Frank LaRose decided to make it one,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “When county boards of elections and local officials started to explore making these dropboxes more accessible to more voters — by installing multiple locations around their counties as happens in many other states — LaRose decided to step in and stop them.
LaRose’s claims that he needs statutory authority are baseless and should be viewed for what they plainly are — an excuse to rein in boards of elections that are trying to make it more convenient for voters to cast their ballots safely and securely during a global pandemic. In the end, he didn’t even wait for the legal opinion he claimed he needed and that he used to keep boards from preparing to add more dropboxes. What a total sham.”
States around the country — GOP-run (like Georgia and Alaska), Democratic-run (Washington and Oregon) and mixed (Wisconsin) — use secure dropboxes widely, with neither controversy nor partisanship. These states locate voter dropboxes at libraries, city halls and other locations.
Follow the timeline of events:
On July 14, the Hamilton County Board of Elections voted 3-1 to investigate the cost and feasibility of installing four additional secure dropboxes. Given problems with the recent primary election, other county boards of elections had similar discussions.
On July 20, LaRose sent a letter to Yost, requesting his office’s legal opinion as to whether county boards of elections could install multiple secure dropboxes or if the current dropboxes (which were required in all 88 counties for the primary election) were even legal at all. His office communicated with boards of elections that they should not take action until he received a response from the AG.
(As WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson put it — it appeared that “LaRose is looking for an excuse to do away with the drop boxes altogether.”)
On July 21, legal counsel for the Ohio Democratic Party sent a letter to Yost explaining that nothing in Ohio law prohibits boards of elections from providing secure dropboxes — and nothing limits the number of those dropboxes.
On July 28, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson sent a letter to LaRose and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections expressing his support for allowing secure dropboxes at Cleveland recreation centers and libraries.
On July 30, Mayor John Cranley sent a letter to the Hamilton County Board of Elections expressing his support for increasing the number of secure dropboxes in the city of Cincinnati.
Today — more than one month after the Hamilton County Board of Elections first moved to look into installing additional dropboxes — LaRose issued his directive outlawing the board’s action.
###
Ohio Democratic Party
August 3, 2020
August 3, 2020
Frank LaRose Opposing Lawsuit That Would Require Him To Do What He Already Claims He Wants To Do
COLUMBUS — The Ohio
Democratic Party’s lawsuit to allow Ohio
voters to request an absentee ballot
electronically is ironically drawing
fire from someone who has spent years saying he
supports allowing online ballot requests — Ohio
Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
“This lawsuit is actually trying to do what Frank LaRose has publicly said he wants to see done, so it’s more than strange that he would now oppose this lawsuit,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “We should all be looking for common-sense ways to make voting in a pandemic faster, easier and safer, so we hope LaRose drops his opposition to this common-sense effort and joins us in our effort in a spirit of bipartisanship.”
LaRose’s spokesperson claimed — without evidence — that allowing absentee ballot requests by email or fax was unworkable “because county elections officials could easily open a virus.”
This opposition makes little sense. The Secretary of State already accepts emailed absentee ballots and requests every election from overseas voters, and the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming all permit voters to request an absentee ballot via email.
Ohio Democratic Party
July 31, 2020
The lawsuit notes that the right to vote absentee by mail is all the more crucial for the upcoming November election in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes casting a ballot in person dangerous for many Ohio voters — especially people who are older and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Statement from ORP Communications Director
Evan Machan on the Ohio Democrats and League
of Women Voters Attempts to Rig Ohio
Elections
Columbus,OH – Ohio
Republican Party Communications Director Evan
Machan released the following statement
regarding multiple attempts to rig Ohio
elections:
“Today, both the Ohio Democrat Party and the League of Women Voters filed lawsuits challenging Ohio election laws. This is another desperate attempt to rig our elections by creating more vulnerabilities in our voting processes, which will lead to unsafe and unfair elections. The LWV wants to eliminate all signature matching requirements for absentee requests and ballots. The ODP wants electronic submission of absentee requests. These two lawsuits combined make it possible for anyone to request a ballot for another voter without their knowledge or consent and no way to check for fraud.”
“Free and fair elections should be a priority for both groups. Though their indifference to election security hardly comes as a surprise, it should infuriate Ohio voters.”
–###–
“This lawsuit is actually trying to do what Frank LaRose has publicly said he wants to see done, so it’s more than strange that he would now oppose this lawsuit,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “We should all be looking for common-sense ways to make voting in a pandemic faster, easier and safer, so we hope LaRose drops his opposition to this common-sense effort and joins us in our effort in a spirit of bipartisanship.”
LaRose’s spokesperson claimed — without evidence — that allowing absentee ballot requests by email or fax was unworkable “because county elections officials could easily open a virus.”
This opposition makes little sense. The Secretary of State already accepts emailed absentee ballots and requests every election from overseas voters, and the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming all permit voters to request an absentee ballot via email.
###
July 31, 2020
Ohio Democratic Party Files Lawsuit To Require County Boards of Elections To Accept Absentee Ballot Applications Electronically
COLUMBUS — The Ohio Democratic Party today filed a lawsuit in state court to require county boards of elections to accept absentee ballot applications via email, fax or other electronic means.“In 2020, when we have all of this
technology available that allows people to
conduct so many activities securely online,
voters should not have to choose between their
health or their right to vote,” said Ohio
Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “Secretary
of State Frank LaRose says that he supports
online absentee ballot applications.
However, he claims — inaccurately, as we lay
out in our lawsuit — that he requires
legislative action to allow county boards of
elections to accept them. We hope he will
agree with our suit that electronic
applications from voters must be accepted per
Ohio law that is already in place. We hope
LaRose won’t fight us in court over something
that is so helpful to voters during this
pandemic — something that he says he supports.
“As for the General Assembly, unfortunately, what we’ve seen over the past two weeks is a legislature that has been rocked by scandal as the now-former Speaker of the House has been indicted for racketeering. We cannot sit idly by and wait for the dysfunctional GOP-led legislature to get this done, especially when that is unnecessary. It is now 95 days until Election Day. However, we are only 67 days until early voting begins. That is when absentee ballots will be mailed out. That’s a little over two months away. We need action now.
“Here is our basic point — not only is legislative action not needed for electronic filing of applications, we believe that rejecting applications because they have been sent in electronically violates current Ohio law. The Ohio Elections Code provides that the written application for an absentee ballot ‘need not be in any particular form.’ It does not require an application to be mailed. It does not require an original signature. To reject the submission of an application that contains all the required information simply because an application is sent electronically is a violation of Ohio law.”
“As for the General Assembly, unfortunately, what we’ve seen over the past two weeks is a legislature that has been rocked by scandal as the now-former Speaker of the House has been indicted for racketeering. We cannot sit idly by and wait for the dysfunctional GOP-led legislature to get this done, especially when that is unnecessary. It is now 95 days until Election Day. However, we are only 67 days until early voting begins. That is when absentee ballots will be mailed out. That’s a little over two months away. We need action now.
“Here is our basic point — not only is legislative action not needed for electronic filing of applications, we believe that rejecting applications because they have been sent in electronically violates current Ohio law. The Ohio Elections Code provides that the written application for an absentee ballot ‘need not be in any particular form.’ It does not require an application to be mailed. It does not require an original signature. To reject the submission of an application that contains all the required information simply because an application is sent electronically is a violation of Ohio law.”
###
League of Women Voters of Ohio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2020
CONTACT:
Jen Miller, League of Women Voters of
Ohio
Kayla Vix, League of Women Voters US
Celina Coming, ACLU of Ohio
Groups Sue Ohio Over Unconstitutional Signature-Matching Procedures for Mail-In Ballots
Lack
of Standardization Puts Thousands at
Risk of Having Their Ballots
Illegally Rejected
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The American Civil
Liberties Union, ACLU of Ohio, and Lawyers’
Committee filed a federal lawsuit today
challenging Ohio’s flawed system of
matching voter signatures on absentee
ballots and absentee ballot
applications. The case was filed on
behalf of the League of Women Voters of
Ohio, the A. Philip Randolph Institute
of Ohio, and an individual.
“Record numbers of Ohioans will vote
by mail in the November 2020 election. But
the patchwork of signature-matching
processes across our state is incredibly
subjective and fraught with error. On top of
this, voters don’t get adequate notice or
opportunity to fix their supposed
mismatches. This will disenfranchise
tremendous numbers of people,” said
Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU
of Ohio.
“Ohio’s confusing, inconsistent
signature-match process too often results in
eligible Ohio voters incorrectly having
their absentee applications or ballots
rejected,” said Jen Miller, executive
director of the League of Women Voters of
Ohio. “Without clear notification or an
efficient way to address questions about
their signatures, too many voters are
disenfranchised by this process, especially
those with disabilities, senior citizens,
young people, and naturalized citizens.
Especially during a global pandemic, Ohio
voters must be able to efficiently secure
absentee ballots and have assurance that
their votes will count.”
Election officials — who have no
handwriting-analysis expertise — are
currently allowed to reject an absentee
ballot or ballot application, sometimes
without notifying the voter, if they think
there is a signature mismatch on the voter’s
paperwork.
Counties also differ as to the
standards they use to analyze signature
matching, the procedures they follow to
reject perceived mismatches, the notice they
provide to voters whose applications are
rejected, the opportunity they give to cure
absentee ballot applications that have been
rejected on the basis of signature mismatch,
and the record-keeping they do to document
this activity.
“County
election officials may be doing the best
they can, but the current system is designed
to fail. Everyone loses here — election
staff who are not adequately trained or
equipped to assess signatures, and voters
who in turn could see their ballots
illegally and arbitrarily tossed,” said
Alora Thomas, senior staff attorney with the
ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “Ohioans’
fundamental right to vote is at risk here,
and state officials can and should fix this
broken system immediately, especially given
the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Ohio’s extremely flawed
signature-match process disenfranchised
voters in the primary and will
disenfranchise voters in the general
election. All voter suppression tactics — no
matter the shape or size —
disproportionately affect voters of color
and we cannot allow this to happen. The
right to vote is sacred and should be
treated as such,” added Andre
Washington, president of the Ohio A. Philip
Randolph Institute.
The lawsuit notes that the right to vote absentee by mail is all the more crucial for the upcoming November election in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes casting a ballot in person dangerous for many Ohio voters — especially people who are older and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
People with disabilities, older
people, and people for whom English is a
second language are also among those who may
be more likely to have fluctuating
handwriting, and are especially of risk of
having their ballot rejected.
The groups are asking the court to
declare the current signature-matching
policies unconstitutional and issue an order
to Secretary of State Frank LaRose to cease
all signature matching of absentee ballot
applications and ballots until a uniform and
constitutional standard across county boards
of elections is implemented.
“Ohio’s signature-match processes for
rejecting absentee ballots and absentee
ballot applications threaten to
disenfranchise thousands of otherwise
eligible voters. In recent elections, these
arbitrary practices tend to
disproportionately impact Black voters,
other voters of color, young voters, elderly
voters, and disabled voters,” said
Kristen Clarke, president and executive
director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law. “No voter should have
an absentee ballot rejected because of rules
that allow officials to use unreliable and
arbitrary methods to review signatures while
also failing to give the voter notice and
opportunity to cure any issues.”
The lawsuit, League of Women
Voters of Ohio v Frank LaRose, was
filed in U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of Ohio.
Ohio Republican Party
July 31, 2020
July 31, 2020
Statement from ORP Communications Director
Evan Machan on the Ohio Democrats and League
of Women Voters Attempts to Rig Ohio
Elections
“Today, both the Ohio Democrat Party and the League of Women Voters filed lawsuits challenging Ohio election laws. This is another desperate attempt to rig our elections by creating more vulnerabilities in our voting processes, which will lead to unsafe and unfair elections. The LWV wants to eliminate all signature matching requirements for absentee requests and ballots. The ODP wants electronic submission of absentee requests. These two lawsuits combined make it possible for anyone to request a ballot for another voter without their knowledge or consent and no way to check for fraud.”
“Free and fair elections should be a priority for both groups. Though their indifference to election security hardly comes as a surprise, it should infuriate Ohio voters.”