Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose championed a voting policy that makes it harder to cast ballots from overseas — then his own overseas ballot got thrown out.
According to Statehouse News Bureau, “In early April, when … LaRose was deployed with the Ohio Army National Guard in Europe, he cast a ballot for the May primary. He tracked his overseas ballot, the same way he’s advised all Ohioans who cast mail-in ballots to do. LaRose’s spokesman Ben Kindel said when the ballot hadn’t arrived by election day, LaRose went to his local precinct and cast a provisional ballot in person.”
Under Ohio law, there is only a four-day grace period for overseas ballots to arrive, which — despite being better than other kinds of mail-in ballots that must arrive by Election Day — is shorter than many other states’ windows for ballots that were properly postmarked on time.
LaRose was an enthusiastic advocate for this limit, which, prior to recent legislation, was a much more reliable 10 days for the mail to arrive.
Ohio law allows for provisional ballots to be cast in this situation, giving LaRose a lifeline to ensure his vote was ultimately counted — but not everyone is so diligent or lucky: “Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) said LaRose, who has pushed for more stringent laws on mail-in voting for most Ohioans in recent years, had an advantage to be able to cast that provisional ballot that many military members didn’t. ‘Frank LaRose, who pushed for this, got to have his cake and eat it too,’ DeMora said in an interview.”
All of this comes as the Supreme Court weighs a case out of Mississippi that could strike down such grace periods altogether, making it vastly harder to vote by mail.
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