Ohio SOS Frank LaRose in Columbus Dispatch:

While absentee voting is trusted by millions of Ohioans as a safe and secure way to vote, and our state ranks among the top in the nation for this voter-first convenience, our system requires some improvements. I have long advocated for online requests and postage-paid envelopes, but the legislature has not yet been willing to give me the legal authority to do either.

There is another simple fix where almost everyone agrees, and it must get done soon. What’s worse is it’s already causing Ohio to receive negative national attention.

On Friday, “CBS This Morning” spent seven minutes talking to its audience of millions about one of the biggest challenges facing election officials across America — the length of time it takes for you to get your mail.

Specifically, Ohio was singled out because the deadline set in law for voters to get their absentee ballot request to their county board of elections is just three days before Election Day. That means your board would have mere hours to process your request and the postal service would have to deliver your ballot the next day so you can have it back in the mail by the Monday deadline.

That’s not just logistically impossible, it’s voter disenfranchisement and could even lead to delayed results on election night. After all, if a voter is informed of a deadline set in state law, the fair assumption is that it’s a feasible one. In this case, it’s not. But we can easily fix this.