COLUMBUS – With three weeks remaining until absentee ballots will be sent out by local boards of election in Ohio, a state panel is expected to vote today on a request by the state’s top elections official to pay for return postage on those ballots.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose has asked the Ohio Controlling Board to approve the use of $3 million dollars from his office to pick up the cost of stamps so voters can mail in their ballots.
“We don’t want people to leave it sitting on their kitchen table because they’re trying to figure out ‘is it one stamp or two?’,” LaRose said in an interview for “Perspective.”
Listen to the full interview here
LaRose asked the board, made up of office-holders from both political parties, for approval to appropriate the money after state lawmakers failed to act on an earlier request.
“It effectively makes every mailbox in the state a ballot drop box,” he said.
With the spread of coronavirus still a concern, purchasing a stamp to return a ballot is a difficult task for some Ohioans, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of the voting-rights organization Common Cause Ohio.
“During a pandemic, when people are facing some significant challenges, it makes sense for the state to pick up the cost and encourage people to vote by mail,” she said.
So far, more than 1 million absentee ballot requests have been submitted, a threshold that wasn’t reached until 28 days before Election Day in 2016, when 1.2 million Ohioans voted absentee.
Voters can request an absentee ballot until Oct. 5, which if approved will be mailed out by boards of election starting on Oct. 6th.