Cleveland.com on LaRose splitting the baby:

Ohio counties will be allowed to offer extra options to collect completed absentee ballots, but still only at a single site per county, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Monday.

LaRose said counties can set up additional drop boxes for completed ballots, as well as drive-through drop-off stations staffed by bipartisan teams of elections workers. But these additional options must be at or outside the county board of elections office, LaRose said in a directive to local elections officials on Monday.

LaRose’s extra guidance comes shortly before a 12 p.m. deadline set by a federal judge overseeing a federal lawsuit over ballot drop boxes. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster had given LaRose until then to explain why he wouldn’t permit Cuyahoga County elections officials to move forward with a plan that sought to sidestep an Aug. 11 order from LaRose that set a limit of one ballot drop box per county. LaRose, a Republican, is the state’s top elections official.

It’s possible LaRose’s order, issued as a directive to county elections offices on Monday, isn’t the final word on the issue, since lawsuits over drop boxes are ongoing. Voting-rights activists, the lawsuit Polster is overseeing, are seeking to force LaRose to allow counties to set up additional secure drop boxes for completed absentee ballots at additional off-site locations.