The following Letter to the Editor from vice chair Joydeep Gupta was published in the Delaware Gazette on July 16, 2020.
The general election is just around the corner, and I believe every Ohioan should have a chance to vote without risking their health and safety. This year, many Ohioans will be relying on absentee or vote by mail to make their voices heard.
Secure dropboxes for voters to drop their ballots into help reduce risk, but currently there is only one dropbox per county. Adding dropboxes would ease pressure on the U.S. Postal System as well as help avoid the lines on Election Day that we saw during the primary.
Instead of acting on this issue, Secretary of State Frank LaRose has sent a letter to Attorney General David Yost asking for an unnecessary legal opinion on the status of Ohio’s dropboxes and if more can be added to places like schools and recreation centers. It has been weeks with no response. We are running out of time to install additional secure dropboxes. Other states across the country use secure dropboxes at various locations for voters, and it’s time for Ohio to catch up.
Voters can use a dropbox to vote only if they have requested an absentee ballot, so it is important that they request one today by visiting our Delaware County Board of Elections office or its website at vote.delawarecountyohio.gov.
The status of absentee ballot requests can be checked online using the link lookup.boe.ohio.gov/vtrapp/delaware/avlookup.aspx.
The board of elections office will not begin sending the absentee ballots out until early October, but the sooner it gets the ballot requests, the easier it’ll be for officials to carry out a safe election.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.4.8″ custom_padding=”|||33px||” border_radii=”on|3px|3px|3px|3px” border_width_all=”3px” border_color_all=”#3668b2″][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.4.8″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.8″]CALL TO ACTION: Contact Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and tell him we must have more safe options to return our ballots.
Call his office at 614-466-2655 or email FLarose@ohiosos.gov or frank@ohiosos.gov.