CINCINNATI — 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."
The directive only allows certain family members to drop off someone else's absentee ballot: spouse, parent, parents-in-law, grandparent, sibling, child, adopted parent, adopted child, stepparent, stepchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew.
The state-mandated list does not include grandchildren, cousins, step-siblings or siblings-in-law.
Voters with disabilities face no restrictions on who can deliver their completed ballot.
"It potentially impacts (voters with disabilities) quite heavily," said Nicole Krungle with the Greater Cincinnati Voter Collaborative. "The state has laws about who can turn in a ballot for somebody else, and they're very restrictive."
Krungle said Hamilton County Board of Elections staff are running a drive-through attestation station across the street from its location at 4700 Smith Road.
"If you have a disability and (can't) get in the Board of Elections and you need to drop somebody else's ballot off, you don't have to get out of your car and go into the building to sign," she said.
In an Oct. 16 Facebook post, LaRose called out "ridiculous misreporting" on the directive but didn't elaborate.
"Disabled voters have many convenient options to vote," the post read. "If you’re returning someone else’s ballot, you need to sign a form that says you’re doing so with legal authority. That protects you and the voter."
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