MANSFIELD — States looking to make election changes are looking at Ohio’s successful laws and voting procedures, according to a representative from Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office.
ShoMore DeNiro, the secretary’s northern Ohio regional liaison, said the state had a “smooth running election” in November 2020, in part due to directives from LaRose’s office.
Her comments came in response to questions from media during a Thursday morning meeting with Richland County commissioners.
“What looks great for Ohio, from my perspective, is we did a wonderful job during the (presidential) election,” said DeNiro, who said LaRose’s directives helped ensure there was no election fraud or voting issues.
DeNiro said other states are now looking to LaRose, a Republican, and other state elections officials for advice.
More than three dozen states across the country have changed or are pushing for voting changes in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. However, no bill has been introduced in the Republican-led Ohio General Assembly to change how votes are cast in this state.
Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, won Ohio by eight percentage points in November.
More than 300 voting changes have been approved or proposed around the nation, including stricter voter I.D. requirements, tightening criteria for submitting a mail-in absentee ballot, to decreasing the amount of days for early in-person voting.
There has been significant pushback on many of the changes, which critics have said are discriminatory and too restrictive.
The only proposed Ohio change, at this point, is House Bill 149, which would assign party affiliations on the statewide ballot for Ohio Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates.
The only statewide race Republicans lost in 2020 was in the Ohio Supreme Court race as Democrat Jennifer Brunner defeated Republican Judith Grench.
DeNiro, whose region includes Ashland, Ashtabula, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Richland and Trumbull counties, declined to comment when asked for LaRose’s opinion of the proposed change.
DeNiro praised work done by the Richland County Board of Elections, including Director Paulette Hankins (who retired Wednesday) and Deputy Director Jane Zimmerman.
“Paulette and Jane did a wonderful job,” DeNiro said.
The county had 72 percent voter turnout in November with no reported problems.
DeNiro also said LaRose was prepared to go forward with the scheduled primary election in March 2020, which ultimately was delayed in the final hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had planned to go on with the election,” she said. “Then Governor (Mike) DeWine and Dr. Amy Acton (then the Ohio Dept. of Health director) made their views known that it would not be safe.
“We understand why (the delay) happened, but we didn’t like it,” DeNiro said.
Also on Thursday, commissioners approved $2,320 for the preparation of 15 photographs, as well as the county seal and county logo, in the their meeting boardroom.
The 16-inch-by-20-inch high-resolution images, being prepared by Spyder Signs & Graphics in Mansfield, depict landmark scenes from around the county, Commissioner Tony Vero said.
Commissioners said county maintenance staff workers will place the signs when they are ready.
