Rick Rouan

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio will extend the deadline for requesting absentee ballots for voters who are “unforeseeably confined or hospitalized” and offer curbside voting for anyone concerned about entering their polling place as the state’s primary election rolls on during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a directive Saturday to local boards of election alerting them to the changes. A press conference about changes to voting on Tuesday was delayed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to coincide with Gov. Mike DeWine’s daily press briefing

Under the directive, boards of elections must accept and process absentee ballot requests until 3 p.m. on Election Day for voters who are told by a health care professional to stay home or to isolate. The previous deadline was noon on Saturday.

Ballots must be returned to the board of elections office by the close of polls on Election Day.

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Boards also must offer curbside voting at precinct polling locations for voters who are concerned about going inside the voting location if the person sends someone else in to inform them about their desire to vote.

A third part of the directive includes a recommendation from the Ohio Department of Health that voters in line be spaced apart at least 4 feet and to spread voting machines apart “as much as possible within the polling location.”

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been multiplying in Ohio as more people are tested. As of Sunday afternoon, Ohio has 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including three in Franklin County, and another 361 are under investigation.

Gov. Mike DeWine has signed orders to ban gatherings of 100 or more people and on Sunday moved to close dine-in restaurants and bars, but the orders so far have not applied to voting on Election Day.

Voting rights groups have been urging LaRose’s office to loosen restrictions on absentee voting and temporarily change other rules to make it easier for people to vote during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Louisiana and Georgia both have postponed their primary elections, but LaRose joined secretaries of state in Arizona, Florida and Illinois on Friday to say that their state’s primaries would go on as scheduled Tuesday.

On Sunday, the League of Women Voters and two other groups wrote a letter asking LaRose to issue a temporary directive that would allow voters to designate an individual who can pick up and drop off absentee ballots, extend the postmark deadline for absentee ballots to election day instead of the day before polls open and permit voters or designees to drop off completed ballots at any polling location in the county.

Those groups also want the deadline to request an absentee ballot to be extended to 3 p.m. on Election Day for those who are “susceptible to COVID-19,” those at higher risk of contracting the virus and those whose polling places were moved.

Last week, LaRose directed county boards of elections to move about 125 polling places out of senior living facilities and to notify voters who would be affected by the shift. Franklin County relocated 16 polling locations.

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The latest request came after a coalition of voting rights organizations on Friday asked LaRose to extend hours for in-person early voting and to accept absentee ballots received more than 10 days after the election.

LaRose responded late Friday, saying that some of the coalition’s requests already were in place while others would require a change in state law. The Ohio General Assembly would have to modify state law to extend the deadline to accept absentee ballot applications and to require mailing absentee ballots to all active voters who have not requested one, he wrote.

Voting machine manufacturers also have provided information about how to sanitize machines, and local boards of elections have received information from health officials about hand-washing, they wrote.

Voting machine manufacturers have instructed elections officials on how to sanitize their equipment, and LaRose’s office has said it will reimburse local boards of elections for buying disinfecting wipes, disposable gloves and other sanitizing supplies.

Polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. Voters in line at 7:30 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.