A US District Court judge rejected a move by the Ohio Secretary of State to limit ballot drop boxes to one site per county, a move done in Texas to make voting with absentee ballots more difficult, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
Judge Dan Polster, the judge for the Northern District of Ohio and a Clinton appointee, found that limiting drop boxes would disproportionately and unfairly impact people of color who live in urban areas.
“While it may be said that the 7,903 registered voters in Noble County may find a single drop box location sufficient, the record demonstrates that the 858,041 registered voters in Cuyahoga County will likely not,” Polster wrote in his opinion.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose attempted to limit the drop boxes to one location, at the county election office. The 10th District Court of Appeals earlier decided that drop boxes were neither mandated or banned by state law.
Voting rights groups hailed the decision. “The court’s order protects the right to vote for tens of thousands of Ohioans, especially Black voters and people of color who disproportionately reside in some of the state’s major population centers,” Kristen Clarke, president of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Enquirer.