Ohio county may mail ballot applications, defy law

4/8/2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBUS — Leaders in Ohio’s largest county have voted to assert home-rule powers and mail unsolicited, absentee-ballot applications to registered voters there if the state doesn’t do so.

The Cuyahoga County Council approved the proposal today in response to a state law barring county elections boards and public officials from mailing such forms.

The proposal came from county Executive Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat running for governor. His Republican rival, Gov. John Kasich, signed a bill allowing Ohio’s elections chief to send the applications for general elections only if the Legislature directs the money for it.

Republicans in the Ohio House had proposed cutting local government funding by 10 percent for any county that doesn’t follow state procedures for providing absentee ballots. A House committee planned to remove that language today.