Secretary of State Frank LaRose has asked local boards to add Ohio House and Senate candidates to the May 3 primary ballot, though the maps of their districts that were approved last week haven’t been okayed by the Ohio Supreme Court. But the Ohio Association of Elections Officials has sent a letter to state lawmakers, asking them to delay the primary.
The association’s Aaron Ockerman says since legislative districts haven’t been firmed up yet, many counties in Ohio no longer have the ability to run a successful May 3 election.
“It’s gone from possible to impossible, where it’s gone from advisable to try to move forward to crunch deadline and try to make this work for May 3 to inadvisable and it’s mostly because we still lack all of the information we need to try to complete a successful primary on May 3,” Ockerman says.
Ockerman says he's not telling lawmakers what to do but he wants them to know elections boards are in uncharted territory. March 18 is the federal deadline to send ballots to overseas and military voters. And even if the maps are ok’d this week, he says there isn’t a lot of time to get ballots printed and do all of the things that need to be done to make the deadlines.
Read the letter from the Ohio Association of Election Officials to leaders of the Ohio Legislature here.
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