COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal judge on Thursday struck down Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s order barring county boards of election from setting up multiple ballot drop box sites, saying the order unfairly burdens large counties.
In a ruling issued Thursday evening, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster also cited the coronavirus pandemic, which he said creates a greater strain on the mail system and increases demand for remote voting options. He said LaRose failed to present evidence that additional drop boxes, used to securely store completed absentee ballots, were not permitted under state law, or that allowing them would cause any harm to the election.
LaRose, a Republican, appealed within hours of the ruling. Polster declined to put a stay on his order, meaning it will take effect immediately unless the appeals court intervenes. If it stands, the ruling would allow Cuyahoga County to move forward with a plan to set up staffed ballot collection sites at six county library branches.
“The Secretary has not advanced any legitimate reason to prohibit a county board of elections from utilizing off-site drop boxes and/or off-site delivery of ballots to staff. Voting began October 6, the Cuyahoga County board voted to begin collecting ballots at public libraries on October 13, other county boards may now vote to implement plans for off-site collection, and it is time for this litigation to end,” he wrote, ruling in favor of a lawsuit brought by a group of voting-rights advocates.
In a statement, LaRose spokeswoman Maggie Sheehan said: “Voting has begun, and Ohio’s elections are safe, secure and accessible. The place to make changes in how we run our elections is the Statehouse, not the courthouse.”
In making his ruling, Polster also granted a request from the voting-rights advocates to re-open the lawsuit, saying his incorrect interpretation of a directive issued by LaRose led him to mistakenly dismiss the case earlier this week. Polster said he had believed LaRose’s guidance, which said boards of election could set up additional staffed ballot drop-off sites “outside” their offices, had meant LaRose was saying they could set up off-site locations. Officials in LaRose’s office say they meant literally outside the building, as in on or near the property.
Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit, said Thursday’s ruling is good for voters.
“State and federal courts agree with voter advocates that multiple satellite drop boxes per county are allowed,” she said. "We hope Secretary LaRose will begin to work with election officials to make this a reality, because drop boxes serve people with disabilities, senior citizens, those without reliable transportation and voters who live far away from the board of elections.”
The voting-rights advocates filed the suit to challenge an Aug. 11 directive from LaRose that required local elections offices to set up a secure drop box at their county elections office, but prohibited them from setting them up anywhere else. The Ohio Democratic Party filed a similar lawsuit in state courts.
Cuyahoga County and other counties in recent years have offered a secure drop box where voters can drop off completed absentee ballots around the clock. But the state required drop boxes for the first time for the primary election earlier this year, and LaRose extended that requirement, although he limited it to one per county, saying more would be illegal under his understanding of state law.
Elected officials in urban areas and voting-rights advocates, meanwhile, pushed for LaRose to allow additional drop boxes, saying they would help reduce congestion at their elections office.
A Franklin County judge and a state appellate court each ruled that LaRose could allow multiple drop box sites if he wanted. But the appellate court said LaRose wasn’t legally required to allow them, overturning the Franklin County judge’s order that said LaRose did.
In filings for the federal court case, LaRose argued that letting counties with more resources set up additional drop boxes would create an unequal elections system, and said a late change would create voter confusion. Lawyers representing President Donald Trump’s campaign said multiple drop box sites per county “exacerbate the risk of fraud and illegal ballot harvesting.”
Polster rejected these arguments, saying LaRose provided no evidence to support the fraud claims, and said there’s time to educate voters about the extra boxes. He also noted LaRose has said he would support extra drop boxes per county, if state law was changed to allow them.
Polster spent particular time describing the effect a single drop box could have in Cuyahoga County. The county Board of Elections headquarters has a small parking lot and is difficult to access for people without vehicles, he said. He also said federal guidelines call for one drop box for every 15,000–20,000 voters.
He sided with voter-rights advocates, who said poor voters in Cuyahoga County were especially disadvantaged by drop-box limits.
“While it may be said that the 7,903 registered voters in Noble County may find a single drop box location sufficient, the record demonstrates that the 858,041 registered voters in Cuyahoga County will likely not,” he said.
Pollster was appointed to his seat in 1997 by then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
Ballot drop boxes are among the hot-button issues in litigation for this year’s election, with Republicans generally pushing to limit them and Democrats pushing to expand them. Trump’s and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaigns have been fighting in court over other elections procedures as states move to expand early voting in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Early voting began in Ohio on Tuesday, with county boards of election opening to in-person voting and absentee ballots going out in the mail to more than 2 million voters who requested them.
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