LaRose: 2020 'is and has continued to be interesting'

Ohio’s election chief came home Thursday to defend the integrity of the Nov. 3 presidential election against doubt and disinformation, including some from his own party.

At a virtual event hosted by the Akron Roundtable, Secretary of State Frank LaRose spoke of “Making Ohio Ready for November” and then answered questions about sluggish poll worker recruitment, early voting challenges, his limitation on absentee ballot drop boxes, his party rejecting pre-paid postage for mail-in ballots and President Donald Trump saying he won’t accept the election results if he loses reelection.

“I’ll commit to defending every part of the lawful exercise of election in Ohio,” LaRose said in responding to Trump's rhetoric without using his name.

From rejecting the presidential petition of Kanye West to preparing an election during a pandemic, LaRose said his job in 2020 “is and has continued to be interesting."

The Akron native, who grew up in Copley before joining the military at 18, recapped his efforts to increase transparency in how ballots are requested, cast and counted. Few states have as many early voting opportunities, said LaRose, who as a state senator sponsored bills that created online voter registration and eliminated a week of early voting called Golden Week.

In response to the question about Trump doubting results that hurt his reelection bid, LaRose explained that, for the first time, early and unofficial results on election night will be accompanied by the number of outstanding ballots in each race. Anyone who calls a race early can be more sure by answering a simple math question: Is the candidate ahead winning by more than the votes still out there?

Poll worker push

LaRose said the state is still short 11,000 poll workers.

A normal election requires 37,000 to sign up for paid training and a 13-hour shift on Election Day. As of Thursday, county election boards had 44,044 names. But LaRose is recommending 50% more than usual, or a pool of 55,588 potential poll workers, “so that we have that reserve force ready because god forbid there’s a resurgence in the virus or a large group of people who don’t show up to work on Tuesday."

Poll workers are typically older, a demographic that’s more susceptible to severe illness or death from COVID-19. Like everything else at the local level, county election boards deploy an even number of Republicans and Democrats to run the polls.

As another example of transparency, LaRose released a “poll worker tracker” to show each county's progress toward his goal. “Maybe that’s a little uncomfortable for the counties that are behind,” he said, “but maybe they need a push to get there.”

As of Thursday, only nine of Ohio’s 88 counties, including Wayne, have met LaRose’s goal. Summit County, like the state, needs 33% more workers to be trained. Cuyahoga County is doing worse than only Knox County. Both need more than 60% more recruits. Portage needs 8% more, Stark 49% more and Medina 53% more.

Vote early, by mail

The secretary of state and his wife will vote early and by mail “in the comfort” of their Columbus home. Other Ohio residents should, too, he said.

It's “great news,” he added, that 1,784,004 absentee ballot applications are already in, more than double the 805,844 requested at this point in the 2016 presidential election.

“One of the things [absentee balloting] helps to do is take the pressure off of Election Day, because, again, we don’t want to see crowding, we don’t want to see lines,” he said. After the coronavirus all but killed in-person voting in the March primary, LaRose began consulting public health officials and even Cedar Point staff who know a thing or two about managing long lines.

LaRose encouraged Ohioans to visit voteohio.gov to register to vote, or check and update their registration. After early voting begins Oct. 6, voters can track their absentee ballots online. The deadline to register for this election is Oct. 5.

Drop box, postage

Earlier this year, LaRose required counties to provide one 24/7 drop box at their election headquarters to collect absentee ballots, as some were already doing. In mid-August, he issued another directive prohibiting additional drop box locations.

Summit County has a box at 500 Grant St. in Akron. Officials say another drop box for drive-up voters will be affixed to the election building in the next couple of weeks.

Limited in his response with lawsuits filed by the Ohio Democrats and voting rights groups, LaRose said voters can mail or deliver their ballots to an election office, with the help of a family member if needed. But "by no other means” may ballots be transmitted, he said of state law.

“And I don’t get to make laws,” the former two-term state senator said. “I have to carry them out as they are written.”

On the controversy of providing postage for voters who mail in their ballots, LaRose broke with his party. In the primary held almost entirely by mail this spring, the legislature required county election boards to cover the cost. In May, LaRose recommended the same for this November election.

But the legislature rejected his suggestion to use some of the $12 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to pay the postage. So he asked the state controlling board to let him use $3 million from his own budget.

The two Democrats on the board agreed. The four Republicans did not.

“I was disappointed that they said no because this is not something that benefits Republicans or Democrats,” LaRose said of his own party rejecting the proposal to remove any confusion about how much postage is needed. Even the bipartisan association of county election boards supported the plan for pre-paid postage.

“There’s no appreciable political benefit to either side on this,” LaRose said. “It just benefits voters.”

Reach Beacon Journal reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-719-1756.