COLUMBUS, Ohio — The coronavirus is disrupting nearly every aspect of life in Ohio. But Secretary of State Frank LaRose wants to make sure it doesn’t dissuade anyone from casting their ballot come November.
That’s why he’s making the push now for Ohioans to secure mail-in voting options.
“Procrastination is always a bad idea — ask any college student — but procrastination is even a worse idea when we are running an election in the midst of a pandemic, and when we know that the U.S. Postal Service isn’t operating at peak efficiency. Waiting to request your absentee ballot request is a bad idea, waiting to send in your ballot once you have it is a bad idea,” LaRose said.
The state will be sending out absentee request forms en masse, but says you can get ahead of the curve by printing one out online.
No printer? No problem.
“You can actually make your own,” LaRose said. “We’ve set up the instructions on our website for how you can make your own form with just a plain white piece of paper. As long as you have all the right fields on there, and you sign it and mail it in, it will work like any other absentee ballot request form.”
The push comes amidst contradicting messaging from the White House, with the president claiming the election would be rigged before offering up the idea of postponing it.
“The question comes up about what if someone tries to move the election date? What if the president tries to move the election date? What if the governor tries to suspend the election date? Those are things that are not possible. The election date is set in federal law, it has been that way for a long time,” said LaRose.
While LaRose fights misinformation from the top, his own message has remained consistent. No matter how you vote, he’s working to ensure this election is a fair one.
“Everything at your county board of elections is thoroughly bipartisan,” he said. “At a time, in Washington, anyway, where it feels like Republicans and Democrats can’t agree that today is Wednesday, at your county board of elections you’ve got Republicans and Democrats that do this very important and consequential work together.”
