Appeals court panel: Ohio voters don't need 'unlimited' ways to deliver absentee ballot applications

COLUMBUS - Ohio doesn't need to offer voters the option of submitting their applications for absentee ballots via email, a panel of appeals court judges ruled Tuesday.

A trio of judges from the 10th District Court of Appeals ruled, 3-0, that Ohio law does not prohibit voters from submitting absentee ballot applications by email, fax or other electronic means.

However, Democrats did not prove they had a right to "unlimited methods for delivery of their applications" and Ohio elections' chief Frank LaRose didn't have a duty to offer any method beyond mail and in-person submission, they ruled.

Requiring the option of sending in applications via mail or fax could “jeopardizes the administration and security of the 2020 general election," wrote Judge William Klatt, who was joined in the decision by Judge Frederick Nelson and Judge Julia Dorrian. 

Klatt and Nelson are both Republicans; Dorrian is a Democrat. 

Dorrian did disagree with her colleagues on two points. She wrote that LaRose did not act reasonably in limiting options for submitting applications. She also found that the harm to voters was not minimal. 

“The unique circumstances surrounding the 2020 general election that must be considered are the continuing state of emergency in Ohio due to COVID-19 and the uncertainty of normal postal service operations," she wrote. 

The Ohio Democratic Party filed the initial lawsuit in July. The party argued that LaRose, a Republican, could accept applications for absentee ballots via email or fax, easing the process of voting amid a novel coronavirus pandemic. 

To vote via mail, Ohioans must first apply for an absentee ballot by mailing or dropping off their request at their county board of elections. Then county election officials will mail a ballot to voters. 

Ohio Democratic Party David Pepper said the judges agreed with the party's key point: Nothing in Ohio law prohibts LaRose from accepting these applications by fax, email or other ways.

"For two years now, it's been LaRose himself, not Ohio law, prohibiting this easy way for voters to ask for absentee ballots," Pepper said. "Today’s decision shows he’s been wrong the entire time.”

LaRose previously said allowing Ohioans to submit their ballot applications via email or fax “rolls out the red carpet to Russian hackers."

LaRose had asked lawmakers to allow Ohioans to request ballots online through a secure system but that never happened. His spokeswoman said that such a system couldn't be set up by November.

"We’re pleased that the court unanimously agreed that the cybersecurity concerns were too great to abandon Ohio’s safe and accessible system so close to the election," LaRose spokeswoman Maggie Sheehan said. "Ohioans are showing incredible confidence in how we’re running this election by requesting absentee ballots at a record pace."

The appeals court panel on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision from Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Stephen L. McIntosh.

McIntosh had ruled that state law doesn't say the applications need to be in "any particular form." He also wrote that the effort required to set up a system shouldn't be an excuse. 

"Any argument that places more emphasis on the amount of work that may be required of the boards than the additional access afforded eligible voters cannot stand," wrote McIntosh, a Democrat first elected to the court in 2007.

The Ohio Democratic Party had not yet decided whether it will appeal the decision. 

Read the decision here: