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VIDEO UPDATE on 2 issues in Ohio:
1) Sec of State slow-walking voter drop box issue
2) lawsuit to require acceptance of online applications
Despite the common sense, bipartisan nature of both drop boxes and online applications, the SOS is slowing both down.
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VIDEO UPDATE on 2 issues in Ohio:
1) Sec of State slow-walking voter drop box issue
2) lawsuit to require acceptance of online applications
Despite the common sense, bipartisan nature of both drop boxes and online applications, the SOS is slowing both down.
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The good news: Mayors and other Ohio leaders have been reaching out to local boards of elections to offer rec centers, libraries and other sites as secure places for drop boxes. Thank you Mayors.
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The bad news: while time is of the essence, and even though he has his own in-house counsel, SOS LaRose wrote AG Yost seeking a formal opinion on the issue.
It was sent on July 20....and with days wasting away, that has frozen any progress on the issue.
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It was sent on July 20....and with days wasting away, that has frozen any progress on the issue.
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So w 91 days to go, instead of ordering and locating drop boxes, moving forward on procedures, etc., boards of elections are stuck waiting for a formal legal opinion from the AG which was unnecessary in the first place.
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But it’s even worse than that.
If you read the SOS letter carefully, it seems to hint that even the current drop boxes at county BOE offices may not be legally allowed.
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If you read the SOS letter carefully, it seems to hint that even the current drop boxes at county BOE offices may not be legally allowed.
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But as we explained in our response to the AG, that is based on a horrific misreading of Ohio law:
(The law passed in the primary required that every county have at least one...it did not authorize them to...some counties have had these drop boxes for years)
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(The law passed in the primary required that every county have at least one...it did not authorize them to...some counties have had these drop boxes for years)
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Such a flawed reading of the law makes you question why the SOS would include it, or why he’d even suggest that even the lone drop boxes may not be legal in the general election.
What a disaster it would be if even these single drop boxes were removed—now, of all times
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What a disaster it would be if even these single drop boxes were removed—now, of all times
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Again, to remind folks, these voting drop boxes are in place all over GOP states like Georgia and Alaska, and Dem states.
Here are locations in Fulton County (Ga) and King County (Wa). They’re....everywhere.
Why can’t Ohio do the same?
No good reason
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Here are locations in Fulton County (Ga) and King County (Wa). They’re....everywhere.
Why can’t Ohio do the same?
No good reason
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One other update: Friday, we filed a suit in state court to require that online/electronic applications for absentee ballots be accepted by Boards of Elections.
9/ https://ohiodems.org/ohio-democratic-party-files-lawsuit-to-require-county-boards-of-elections-to-accept-absentee-ballot-applications-electronically/
9/ https://ohiodems.org/ohio-democratic-party-files-lawsuit-to-require-county-boards-of-elections-to-accept-absentee-ballot-applications-electronically/
Ohio statute says clearly that applications for ballots “need not be in any particular form.”
So we don’t believe the law allows applications sent electronically to be rejected so long as all the required information is included.
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http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3509.03
So we don’t believe the law allows applications sent electronically to be rejected so long as all the required information is included.
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http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3509.03
Now, for years, Frank LaRose has said that he supports Ohioans being able to deliver their applications online.
You’d think he’d be supportive of a suit seeking to empower him to do so now, right?
11/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cincinnati.com/amp/5171320002
You’d think he’d be supportive of a suit seeking to empower him to do so now, right?
11/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cincinnati.com/amp/5171320002
Wrong.
He went to court yesterday to try to stop our suit. And drag it out.
Another “run out the clock” strategy.
Just plain sad to see.
Always the same theme: the SOS is literally fighting and slowing OUR attempts to empower him to make voting safer and easier
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He went to court yesterday to try to stop our suit. And drag it out.
Another “run out the clock” strategy.
Just plain sad to see.
Always the same theme: the SOS is literally fighting and slowing OUR attempts to empower him to make voting safer and easier
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He keeps looking for others—AG Yost, the legislature—to blame for inaction on common sense measures, when he could simply go ahead and pursue those measures if he wanted to.
We’re trying to show he has the power to keep his promises...he keeps trying to prove otherwise.
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We’re trying to show he has the power to keep his promises...he keeps trying to prove otherwise.
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Which is where you come in.
Please make a call to the Secretary of State Office.
877-767-6446 x 1 x 1
Please make it clear you support expanding drop boxes and online applications as easy steps to make voting safer and easier.
Please tweet the result of your call
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Please make a call to the Secretary of State Office.
877-767-6446 x 1 x 1
Please make it clear you support expanding drop boxes and online applications as easy steps to make voting safer and easier.
Please tweet the result of your call
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And please RT the top of this thread so others do the same.
With Trump’s attacks on the post office and vote by mail, and this pandemic, if your calls convince the SOS to do the right thing, your work might help save this election.
Thank you.
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With Trump’s attacks on the post office and vote by mail, and this pandemic, if your calls convince the SOS to do the right thing, your work might help save this election.
Thank you.
END
