Appeals court: Ohio's elections chief can allow multiple ballot drop boxes – but he doesn't have to

Cincinnati Enquirer

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose can allow multiple absentee ballot drop boxes per county, contrary to his single-box directive, a trio of state appeals court judges ruled Friday. But the judges left the decision whether to allow them to LaRose.

COLUMBUS – Ohio’s elections chief Frank LaRose can allow multiple drop boxes per county for Ohioans to deposit their ballots, a panel of appeals court judges concluded Friday.

But nothing in Ohio law requires him to allow multiple drop boxes, according to the 10th District Court of Appeals decision.

The result: It's up to LaRose to decide whether county boards of elections can have multiple drop boxes to deposit ballots this November.

LaRose previously said, “If it’s legal to add extra drop boxes, then I’m certainly open to the idea.”

On Friday, a LaRose spokeswoman said his office is reviewing the decision.

The trio of judges found that if a county board of elections is willing to establish and maintain a drop box at a different location and all the proper procedures are followed then that satisfies Ohio law.

However, "That interpretation should not be construed as imposing a requirement that a board of elections must utilize a definitive number of drop boxes, only that the statute does not limit it," wrote Judge Betsy Luper Schuster, a Republican, joined by Judge Susan Brown, a Republican and Judge Julia L. Dorrian, a Democrat.

"This is a huge win for voters," Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said. "LaRose has been wrong from the start."

Pepper urged LaRose to take the judges' legal guidance and allow multiple drop boxes in counties that want them.

Their decision did reverse a ruling from Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye, which would have required LaRose to allow county board of elections to add drop boxes.

Frye, a Democrat first elected in 2004, wrote that in the context of 2020, in the middle of the novel coronavirus pandemic and amid postal delivery delays, the drop box restriction is "arbitrary and unreasonable."

A similar case is pending in federal court. U.S. District Court Judge Dan A. Polster was waiting on a decision from the 10th District but had ordered LaRose to work with Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to address the likely flood of voters there. Earlier this week, LaRose allowed a second site adjacent to the county elections office. The county had wanted to staff six ballot collection sites at county libraries.

Read the decision below.

This story will be updated.