Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose can legally require counties to offer multiple drop boxes per county for completed absentee ballots, a panel of state appeals judges ruled on Friday.
The trio of judges on the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals disagreed somewhat on the particulars — but a majority said it was within LaRose’s discretion to allow multiple drop boxes, while overturning a lower court decision from a Franklin County judge that said LaRose was legally required to do so.
Officials in large counties had asked LaRose to allow multiple drop boxes throughout the county to accommodate expected record levels of completed absentee ballots. LaRose, a Republican, had said it was a gray area, and decided to order county elections boards to only offer one drop box outside their office, even though he said he would support a law change allowing multiple drop boxes.
There’s a separate federal case where LaRose might be required to allow counties to use additional drop boxes. Stay tuned.