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鈥檛 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鈥檚 Aaron Ockerman says since legislative districts haven鈥檛 been firmed up yet, many counties in Ohio no longer have the ability to run a successful May 3 election.
鈥淚t鈥檚 gone from possible to impossible, where it鈥檚 gone from advisable to try to move forward to crunch deadline and try to make this work for May 3 to inadvisable and it鈥檚 mostly because we still lack all of the information we need to try to complete a successful primary on May 3,鈥� 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鈥檇 this week, he says there isn鈥檛 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
