Ohio Democratic Party v. LaRose (Amicus)

On August 31, 2024, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued Directive 2024-21. The directive newly prevents everyone who is lawfully assisting another voter from using a drop box, and mandates that drop boxes may be used only by voters who are returning their own ballot.

Secretary LaRose issued this directive soon after a federal court decision in late July that struck down restrictions in Ohio’s House Bill 458, which had made it a felony for all but a handful of family members to assist voters with disabilities in returning absentee ballots. That decision resulted from a lawsuit that the the ACLU, ACLU of Ohio, and Covington & Burling brought on behalf of an individual voter with a disability and the League of Women Voters of Ohio in December 2023.

Secretary LaRose has tried to use his loss in that case as a shield to justify his new effort to make drop boxes harder for all Ohioans to use. But nothing in the district court’s narrow, targeted ruling to protect the right to vote for Ohioans with disabilities made Ohio elections less safe or secure, nor did the district court’s order that Ohio comply with federal law justify LaRose’s imposition of new hurdles for Ohio voters and election officials.

After the Ohio Democratic Party challenged Secretary LaRose’s new directive in the Ohio Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Ohio filed an amicus brief on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Ohio and the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP. Our brief highlights the harms that Secretary LaRose’s last-minute changes will inflict on Ohioans: ranging from elections officials, many of whom have already condemned the new directive, to voters, including the two Ohio voters who submitted declarations explaining how the directive will make voting harder for them.