LaRose says House, Senate races must be removed from May primary ballot

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has declared that Ohio House and Senate races won’t appear on the May 3 primary ballot because there are no valid maps that define those districts.

This could mean a move or a split of the primary.

After the latest legislative maps approved by LaRose and other Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission were struck down as unconstitutionally gerrymandered, LaRose raised concerns about the primary.

LaRose said last week that it was “no longer logistically possible” to include the legislative races on the May ballot unless a federal court intervened.

LaRose went further Wednesday, notifying the federal court that the close of business Wednesday was the final deadline for including those races, as well as contests for state central committee.

“We have to direct the boards to start removing state legislative races and state central committee races from the ballot so that they are ready on April 5 when voters start showing up (for early voting)," LaRose said.

LaRose said the problem is that there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of types of ballots, depending on local races, levy requests and options. When ballots are changed, LaRose said, they are reviewed by a bipartisan team. That makes it impossible to easily "delete" a race.

LaRose said if the federal court gets involved in the next few days, a supplemental second ballot could be used, but he said that might create confusion for voters.

Lawmakers still haven’t proposed moving the primary or splitting it into two events. It's estimated a second primary could cost at least $15 million.

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