Ohio approves spending millions to mail, postmark absentee ballots apps for November election

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose got permission from a state spending panel on Monday to spend millions of dollars on the upcoming November election.

Among the money approved by the Ohio Controlling Board, a panel of governor’s appointees and state lawmakers:

• $2.5 million to send unsolicited absentee ballot applications to all 8 million of Ohio’s registered voters, plus a $1.8 million transfer, or change to previously approved money, to cover the costs of postage for the applications
• $1 million to pay for a public-service announcement campaign promoting the election.
• A $2.1 million transfer to help county elections officials buy electronic pollbooks .

All the expenditures are longstanding elections-related measures in Ohio, including the unsolicited mass absentee ballot mailing, which has been required by law for even-year general elections for more than a decade. Under a new reporting requirement lawmakers passed as part of a sweeping elections law in December 2022, LaRose must keep track of how many of the unsolicited ballot applications are returned as undeliverable, how many are completed and how many result in cast ballots. The application mailings typically occur in September, or about two months before Election Day.

Part of the PSA spending would be to hire Origo Branding Company of Columbus to help the state come up with an advertising campaign that would emphasize that elections are secure while providing voters with information about where and when the election will occur and what voting requirements are.

Controlling board members had few questions during a public meeting Monday where the expenditures were approved. State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Westlake Democrat, said she previously had concerns that the PSAs might be more like veiled political ads promoting LaRose, but said LaRose’s staff addressed most of those concerns. She said Origo seemed nonpartisan, but wondered if the Secretary of State’s Office should consider whether a vendor is nonpartisan while publicly bidding similar contracts in the future.

Andrew Tobias covers state politics and government for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer

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