President Trump’s re-election campaign Thursday jumped into a legal fight over Ohio’s elections, seeking to prevent a push for multiple drop boxes for absentee ballots in counties across the state.
Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party filed documents to intervene and oppose a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Cleveland brought by voting-rights groups.
The voting-rights organizations say a directive by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose that permits just one box per county seriously harms larger, metropolitan counties and violates residents’ rights. The groups are pushing for drop boxes to be placed in different parts of communities, such as libraries, to allow greater access for voters.
But attorneys from law firm Jones Day, which represent the Trump campaign and the Republican groups, said in filings that the directive does accommodate voters and “also protects the integrity of Ohio’s elections by requiring that such drop boxes be continually monitored to ensure that they remain secure.”