With early voting underway, people — including those with disabilities — face new restrictions on how they cast an absentee ballot.
A directive sent down by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office in August recently survived legal challenges . It requires someone delivering an absentee ballot for another person to sign an attestation. The legal form certifies the person is complying with state law, which means they must go to the Board of Elections to sign the form .
In a recent statement, Secretary of State Frank LaRose called the ballot drop box restrictions “safeguards … against ballot harvesting.”
“This is the same policy that’s been used successfully in other states, and it’s designed to protect both individuals and election officials from accusations of illegal voting,” he said in the statement.
Gwen McFarlin, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, called it “another form of voter suppression.”
“Ballot harvesting is a term that is not really applicable,” McFarlin said. “It’s very rare in the state of Ohio … bringing that terminology out for something that’s not occurring is sad.”