It happens way too often in politics.
A candidate creates a “problem” that doesn’t really exist and proceeds to spend campaign dollars knocking down straw men.
This is what Robert Sprague, one of two Republican candidates vying to be Ohio's next Secretary of State, is doing with a deliberately cartoonish TV ad where he compares ballot drop boxes to garbage cans, saying the boxes are meant to encourage election fraud.
“Don’t let Democrats trash your vote,” says Sprague, who is trying to win the May 5 GOP primary.
The 30-second TV ad features Sprague, who is now state treasurer, strolling down a tree-lined street in a pleasant looking neighborhood when he comes upon a simulated ballot drop box.
“Seen one of these in your neighborhood?” Sprague asks.
Well, no, you haven’t unless you happen to live at a county board of elections in Ohio.
A weird Muppet-like creature pops its head out of the fake ballot box. Think Oscar the Grouch in his garbage can, but with Grover's coloring and Mr. Snuffleupagus' snout. The fuzzy creature introduces itself as “Lefty the Cheat.” Lefty gives his testimonial to drop boxes.
“I love ‘em, Robert,” Lefty says. “They make elections messy.”
Sprague says that, if he comes Ohio’s chief elections officer, he will “support President Trump. I’ll ditch the drop boxes.”
And, Sprague says, he will “verify American citizenship” for people registering to vote.
“So only legal votes count?” says Lefty, somewhat alarmed.
Then, Sprague rather rudely slams the door on Lefty’s “ballot box.”
Sprague’s campaign did not respond to a request for an interview with the candidate.
Bryan Hambley, a Cincinnati oncologist who is a Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, had plenty to say about Sprague’s ad, saying it was meant to “frighten Ohio voters.”
@hambleyforohio Robert Sprague's campaign put out a misleading video recently, meant to scare Ohioans. What's really scary? Sprague would go along with Trump's agenda if elected as SecretaryOfState, and has taken thousands of corporate PAC dollars, just like my primary opponent has. We need a candidate in November who will stand up to Trump, end gerrymandering, and fight to get rid of corporate PAC dollars in our elections. HambleyForOhio CareForOhio
♬ original sound - Bryan Hambley - Bryan Hambley
“I want people to know that their elections already are secure,” Hambley said in a video post. “We’ve heard nothing from Republicans except scare tactics and distractions.”
Sprague’s ad takes so many liberties with the truth behind ballot boxes it is hard to know where to begin.
First, if there is one thing you will never see in Ohio, it is a ballot drop box on the street where you live.
The real ballot drop boxes are on the property of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections. There are no Muppet-like creatures living inside them. Just ballots.
Ohio law requires a bipartisan pair of board of elections workers to remove ballots from the drop boxes once a day and at 7:30 p.m. on an election day.
It takes two keys to open the box — one held by the Democrat and the other by a Republican. The ballots are then taken inside the board of elections office and checked to make sure they were put there by registered voters. If the ballots check that box, they are added to the count. If the ballots are not legitimate, they are not counted.
Period. End of story.
Every job in a county board of elections in Ohio has, in effect, two people for every job — one Republican and one Democrat. They are meant to be a check on each other, but, nearly always, they work together just to get the ballot counting done.
I have seen this process play itself out many times, in many counties. It works well, in almost all cases, and is a process that has been in place since at least 2010.
The picture Sprague paints in his cartoonish ad is pure fantasy.
Maybe he assumes that his Republican primary voters won’t notice the difference.
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