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Politics Chat: Absentee Drop Boxes Still A Problem For Local Election Officials

A voter drops of his election ballot in the drop box at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Cleveland.
Tony Dejak
/
AP
A voter drops of his election ballot in the drop box at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Cleveland.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, has told Ohio's 88 county boards of elections they can have more than one drop box for  absentee voters but they can't be scattered about - they must all be on board of elections' property. But Friday, a U.S. District Court judge in Cleveland ordered LaRose to allow county board of elections to put drop boxes at multiple locations, if they want.

In Hamilton County, Democrats want to place several of them around the county so that it would be more convenient for voters to drop off their ballots, but Republicans on the board of elections oppose that.

Meanwhile, the one drop box outside the Hamilton County Board of Elections is causing massive traffic jams around the board's Norwood office. 

WVXU Senior Political Analyst Howard Wilkinson talked with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik about the problem and possible solutions.

Copyright 2021 91.7 WVXU. To see more, visit 91.7 WVXU.

Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU News Team after 30 years of covering local and state politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio governor’s race since 1974 as well as 12 presidential nominating conventions. His streak continued by covering both the 2012 Republican and Democratic conventions for 91.7 WVXU. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots; the Lucasville Prison riot in 1993; the Air Canada plane crash at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983; and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. The Cincinnati Reds are his passion. "I've been listening to WVXU and public radio for many years, and I couldn't be more pleased at the opportunity to be part of it,” he says.