COLUMBUS — If Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose wants to expand the number of ballot drop boxes beyond one per Ohio county, he can. But an appellate court won’t force him to.
That was the essence of a ruling Friday that left the fate of LaRose’s order restricting counties to one drop box each in his hands.
Curbside dropoff of ballots has been a growing trend amid the coronavirus pandemic and postal cutbacks.
Ohio’s 10th District Court of Appeals agreed with a trial judge that LaRose’s directive was not reasonable, but said it didn’t violate state law so shouldn’t be blocked.
“It is now time for LaRose to act on his public and private comments that he ‘would love to see more drop boxes.’ It’s the right thing to do, and there is time to allow counties to add dropboxes in the final weeks of the election, when they will be most helpful, just like they are being installed in states across the country,” said Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper in a statement.