Marcano opinion: Ohio should expand ballot drop boxes to protect access to voting

Ohio should expand ballot drop boxes, American absentee voting dates back to the Civil War. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln pushed to ensure Union soldiers could vote from the battlefield, leading to widespread mail voting for the first time. According to Time Magazine, ballots were sent from military camps, including those cast by Highland County, Ohio soldiers stationed in Atlanta, one of which is preserved in a Smithsonian exhibit.

Ever since, mail voting has been a political flashpoint.

Last month, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said he reluctantly signed legislation requiring all absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day to be counted. The law removes a four day grace period that previously allowed ballots postmarked on time to be counted if they arrived shortly after Election Day.

Ohio should expand ballot

DeWine cited a pending Supreme Court ruling that could strike down grace periods in federal elections, potentially forcing Ohio to apply different standards to state and federal ballots. Others pointed to the US Department of Justice, which, at the request of President Trump, signaled it might sue Ohio over counting late arriving ballots.

Ohio now joins 33 states without a grace period. That alone is not the problem.

Election Day is not a moving target. It always falls on the first Tuesday in November, and Ohio voters can request absentee ballots up to 29 days in advance. That leaves ample time to vote and mail a ballot.

The data also undercuts claims that ending the grace period will dramatically suppress turnout. In southwest Ohio during the last election, at least 85 percent of voters who requested absentee ballots returned them. In Montgomery County the return rate was 88 percent, in Warren County 89 percent, and in Greene County 90 percent, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. Only seven ballots statewide were counted during the grace period in that region, and just over 7,000 across Ohio.

If the goal is to make voting easier, the grace period is not the hill to die on.

Ohio is one of just five states with highly restrictive drop box rules. Each county is allowed only one drop box, and it must be located outside the county board of elections. For large counties, that is plainly insufficient.

This was a missed opportunity for the governor. If the grace period was going to be eliminated, Ohio should have expanded access to secure drop boxes as a practical alternative. A simple population based standard would help, for example one drop box per 100,000 residents up to a reasonable cap.

Franklin County, with more than 1.3 million residents, should not be limited to a single drop box. Montgomery County, with more than 537,000 people, could easily support five drop boxes at locations designated by its board of elections.

This is not a call for a free for all. Only 15 of Ohio’s 88 counties have populations above 200,000. Expanding drop boxes in those areas would dramatically improve access without overwhelming election officials.

Republican and Democratic attorneys general alike have repeatedly affirmed that elections are secure. The argument that additional drop boxes would undermine integrity does not hold up.

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Last November, only about six percent of Ohio voters used a drop box. That number would almost certainly rise with better access, simply because drop boxes are convenient and reliable.

America has a long history of making voting harder than it needs to be, and that history cuts across party lines. Removing safeguards without adding practical alternatives repeats that mistake.

Senate Bill 293, which Governor DeWine signed into law, means some valid ballots will now be discarded. Under prior law, ballots had to be postmarked on time. The grace period only accounted for mail delays beyond a voter’s control. It did not extend the time to vote.

This change hits seniors and people with disabilities especially hard. For many Ohioans, voting by mail is not a convenience but a necessity. In November 2024, nearly a third of Ohio voters returned their ballots by mail.

Governor DeWine had a chance to spark a serious conversation about expanding access through ballot drop boxes. He did not take it.

He still should. It is the right thing to do, and it would strengthen, not weaken, Ohio’s democracy.