Ohio secretary of state: Top election concern is poll worker recruitment

Ohio’s secretary of state said Sunday that recruiting poll workers is his top concern two months ahead of the election.

“The thing that we’re thinking about more than anything right now is poll worker recruitment,” Frank LaRose said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It takes 35,000 Ohioans to run in-person Election Day. And so we’re doing all we can to recruit those poll workers.”

LaRose said his second priority is providing reliable information to Ohioans.

“We’re making sure that we get accurate information out to Ohio’s voters,” he told host Chuck Todd. “That’s why your profession is protected by the very First Amendment. And that’s why one of my most important jobs is being that source of accurate and trusted information for Ohio’s voters.”

LaRose also said that it’s unfortunate that the state’s legislature has not acted on resources to cover postage issues regarding absentee and mail-in ballots.

“I would love to see us provide postage-paid absentee ballots to every registered voter who requests one. Of course, that’s going to require a change in law by the state legislature or action by the State Controlling Board. And that’s exactly what I’m continuing to push them to do,” he said.

“We’ve expanded drop boxes in Ohio as well, but the law only allows me to place one at every County Board of Elections. We’ve done just that. That’s a good improvement for Ohioans. But I want to see those postage-paid envelopes because, effectively then, every mailbox in the state becomes a drop box for your ballot.”

LaRose said that drop boxes in the state are required to be under 24-hour video surveillance and be emptied every day by a bipartisan team at the County Boards of Elections.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting leads to fraud and said that it would be “massively bigger” this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Last month, he also said that it would take months for the November election to be decided.

Todd noted in Sunday’s interview that a bill from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) would change the day electors meet from December 14th to January 2nd in case states need more time, an issue DeRose said is low on his list of priorities.

“If they gave it to us, we’d use it,” he said. “But our Ohio law already requires me to certify that election result much sooner than that. Our Boards of Elections have a few weeks to report it to me, and then I have to certify the final election results.

“So even if Congress changed the date of the Electoral College, our state law would still require me to get my work done much sooner.”