GOP defend limit on ballot boxes to 1 per Ohio county

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio and Republican groups including the Trump campaign are fighting to uphold a GOP election chief's directive limiting ballot drop boxes in the presidential battleground to one per county.

They told a state appellate court in filings Monday that a county judge overstepped his authority when he blocked it. The Ohio Republican Party said Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye "relied on anecdotal evidence and 'sound public policy,'" when the case "presents a pure question of law."

In the crosshairs of the legal battle is Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose's Aug. 12 directive restricting counties to one drop box each, located at the county board of elections.

Larose issued the order just hours after Cuyahoga County, home to populous and Democratic-leaning Cleveland, said it would allow ballots to be collected at six public libraries. He argued the number of drop boxes per county must be uniform to be fair, and that lawmakers had made clear in a law passed this spring that ballots had to be mailed or personally delivered to county board directors.

The cities of Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus have jumped into the lawsuit brought by the Ohio Democratic Party, as has the labor umbrella group AFL-CIO.

Siding with Larose in the case are the state GOP, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Trump for America campaign.