You would think that after losing so many political battles in the past few years, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose would be used to it.
But this latest one, coming off a federal court ruling that Ohio voters with disabilities should have better opportunities to cast ballots, has really set him off.
He’s been a busy fellow since that court decision that removed the limits of an Ohio law on who could place ballots in drop boxes:
- He has asked his fellow Republican leaders in the Ohio General Assembly to consider doing away entirely with the ballot drop boxes — currently one per county — that sit outside the 88 county boards of elections;
- He wants the legislature to adopt a “proof of citizenship” status to voter registration papers, to address the nearly non-existent problem of non-citizens voting, which already is illegal;
- And he has, through a directive to all 88 county boards of elections, made it harder for Ohioans to use drop boxes to drop off a ballot for a disabled friend or family member, forcing them to go inside the board office and sign an “attestation,” which would essentially render the drop box useless.
Democrats and voting rights organizations are furious over that last directive LaRose recently sent to boards of elections.
ANALYSIS: LaRose found 137 non-citizens registered to vote. It's not as serious as it sounds
Tuesday morning, a group of Cincinnati’s best-known Democratic elected officials and their supporters gathered for a press conference outside the Hamilton County Board of Elections where they had to compete with ambulance sirens and highway traffic to get their message out.
“You can either make it easier for people to vote or you are making it harder,” said U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman. “The secretary of state has chosen to make it harder.
“Voters don’t like it. So stop doing this stuff.”
LaRose’s press secretary sent a written response to WVXU when asked for comment.
“It must be football season because the uninformed Monday morning quarterbacks are out in full force,” LaRose said. “This is why election laws should be made at the Statehouse, not the courthouse.”
LaRose says what worries him, and why he implemented the new rule, is the specter of “ballot harvesting” — where some person or organization gathers up absentee ballots en masse and dumps them in a drop box at the local board of elections.
Examples of ballot harvesting have been exceedingly rare in Ohio in the five years since drop boxes were placed outside election board offices.
But Dan Lusheck, LaRose's press secretary, told WVXU that doesn't mean the secretary of state's office shouldn't be on the lookout for the illegal activity.
"Bank robberies and hijackings are relatively rare, but that doesn't mean we don't have safeguards to prevent them from happening,'' Lusheck said.
LaRose says the ruling in the recent lawsuit filed by the ACLU, with help from the League of Women Voters of Ohio, forced his hand.
"This (ruling) effectively creates an unintended loophole in Ohio's ballot harvesting law that we must address," LaRose wrote in the letter to boards of elections, according to the Columbus Dispatch. "I suspect this is exactly the outcome the (League of Women Voters of Ohio) intended. Under the guise of assisting the disabled, their legal strategy seeks to make Ohio's elections less secure and more vulnerable to cheating, especially as it relates to the use of drop boxes."
In his note to WVXU, he added that, as secretary of state, it is his "duty to maintain the careful balance between security and convenience."
"Unfortunately, recent irresponsible activist litigation upset that balance and created an unacceptable level of risk to the integrity of our process. I was left no choice but to implement this thoughtful and balanced policy in response.”
'It makes no sense'
At Tuesday’s press conference in Norwood, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairwoman Gwen McFarlin — who also chairs the county board of elections — said she believes LaRose’s directive is “illegal.”
“Only a dictator can change the law, and Frank LaRose is not a dictator,’’ McFarlin said.
She pointed out that for every job in the board of elections there are two people doing that job — one Democrat and one Republican.
“I can’t go anywhere near that box (alone),” McFarlin said.
By chance, as folks were leaving the press conference, two employees — each with his own key — were opening the drop box to take out absentee ballot requests.
Five years ago, LaRose issued a directive to the 88 county boards of elections saying that they could have only one secure ballot drop box per county.
By contrast, in Washington state, the city of Seattle and Kings County have over 60 boxes where voters can drop off ballots.
COMMENTARY: Frank LaRose says he's about 'election integrity.' His actions say otherwise
At the Tuesday press conference, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said he believes LaRose and his allies in the Ohio GOP are doing all of this for their party’s candidate for president.
The plan, Pureval believes, is to undermine voters' trust in the system while “intimidating and suppressing” voters — particularly voters of color.
“It really all comes back to Donald Trump,’’ Pureval said. “They are going to do everything they can to fix things so Trump doesn’t have to accept defeat in November.”
Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said LaRose’s requirement that a person dropping off a ballot for a disabled relative go into the board of elections and sign as “attestation” seems a bridge too far.
“So, you have to go inside to sign a form saying, ‘I am doing what I am doing,’ ’’ Driehaus said. “It makes no sense.”
