![Voters drive up to ballot drop boxes set up in the parking lot of the Franklin County Board of Elections on October 24, 2020. [Karen Kasler]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d1253e1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/864x648+0+0/resize/840x630!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fimages%2Fnews%2Fnpr%2F2021%2F05%2F998880343_138701338.jpg)
A Republican-backed billthat would allow ballot drop boxes only at boards of elections for 10 days before the election and shorten the window to request early ballots got its first hearing in an Ohio House committee that took a contentious turn Thursday.
State Reps. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) and Sharon Ray (R-Medina) say they don’t dispute President Joe Biden’s win and that Ohio, which went for former president Donald Trump, had a fraud-free vote in 2020.
But Republicans in nearly all 50 states have put forward election law changes since last year’s vote. More votes were cast in Ohio in 2020 than ever before and early voting numbers were historic too.
After explaining his bill, Seitz noted Democrats, who are in the minority, have introduced their own proposals.
“I would actually submit that those expansions are far more draconian than anything we’re trying to do in this bill," Seitz said. "So this is a balanced bill. It expands access. It improves the system in many ways.”
The bill would set a three-box limit on drop boxes, which are allowed only on board of elections property, and permit ballots to be dropped in them for the 10 days before the election.
It also would require absentee ballot requests to be received10 days before the election, not three days as in current law. Seitz said the U.S. Postal Service requested the change.
And the measure would create an online absentee ballot request system – which Democrats said last year was needed to replace Ohio’s clunky process of printing out a request, mailing it in and waiting for the ballot to arrive, then mailing that back or dropping it off. But they’re concerned the proposed system would require two forms of ID rather than the current one.
Democrats including Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) peppered Seitz with questions on the changes, the restrictions and the timing of his 174-page bill, which Sweeney said is raising a lot of concern.
“In the past 24 hours, my office has received 500 emails and calls opposing this bill,” Sweeney said.
Seitz made it clear he was not moved.
“There has been an orchestrated campaign by folks on the left to gin up form letters, which I care very little for, because they all rest on a thread of misinformation and lies,” Seitz said.
The bill also would eliminate in-person voting the Monday before the election, though Seitz said he’ll offer an amendment to require those six hours be allocated in the week before the election.
But most questions from House Democrats focused on the drop boxes. There was a legal fight over those boxes last year, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose has said drop boxes are permitted only at board of elections offices.
Like Seitz, state Rep. Brigid Kelly is from Cincinnati, where there were long lines both to vote early in person and to leave ballots in drop boxes in 2020.
“So it would seem to me that that it would be a good thing to continue to permit people to put their ballots into the drop box for the entirety of the period prior to the election, not just in the 10 days immediately preceding,” Kelly said.
House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) said those lines suggested drop boxes were popular with voters, and pushed back on Seitz’ 21-year record as a lawmaker.
“It would seem like we would be more willing to do and make policy that is in line with the behaviors of folks, rather than dropping a completely new regime and telling them, ‘Well, this is what we want you to do because I’ve been around the legislature for 21 years and this is just the way I say we should do it,’” Sykes said.
Seitz said the drop boxes were heavily used because of the pandemic – but refrained from using the term “COVID cowards” as he did in an interview with the Statehouse Bureau earlier in May.
Seitz is not often known for using a conciliatory tone. At times during the hearing, he suggested Democrats’ criticism was rooted in partisanship and made clear his disdain for early voting and drop boxes, which he said have never been in state law but that will be in this bill.
“Now that might not be the progress that you want. But that is the progress that we’re prepared to offer in this bill,” Seitz said. “If you think you can pass your bill and put drop boxes all over hell’s half acre, then so be it.”
Democrats wanted to continue the hearing, but Republican committee chairman Rep. Shane Wilkin cited an upcoming caucus meeting and cut off questions after an hour and 20 minutes, which upset Democratic Rep. Stephanie Howse, who said it “isn’t right”.
A hearing began on a separate bill, and Democrats walked out.
More hearings on the bill are likely after the Memorial Day break.
Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.
