• Statewide primary election results postponed until June 2
• Absentee ballots accepted through May 26
• ODH Director orders polling locations closed, citing public health emergency
First the election was postponed; then it back was on and now it’s officially off again.
Unprecedented confusion surrounded the immediate run-up to today’s scheduled primary election, as county boards of election across Ohio, candidates for office and voters themselves struggled to make sense of action taken by their statewide elected officials.
Polling locations are closed today on the order of Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton.
The primary election has been “suspended” until June 2.
Absentee voting is extended, and will continue through May 26, according to information provided by state and county election officials.
Staff at the Logan County Board of Elections office were preparing Monday afternoon to pack up all the voting equipment that only days earlier was dropped off to polling locations across the county, in accordance with action taken by Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
The secretary of state reportedly had told board of election officials across Ohio that he fully expected courts to grant a lawsuit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to postpone the election until June 2 to help curb spread of the coronavirus.
But Judge Richard Frye rejected the lawsuit, declining to set a “terrible precedent” by having the judiciary step in to suspend an open election some 12 hours before ballots were to be cast.
The decision was pending appeal, as DeWine and LaRose issued a joint statement around 9 p.m. saying in part it’s “logistically,” “not possible,” to have an election, “under these extraordinary circumstances.”
The secretary of state’s office cited guidance from the Ohio Department of Health that all persons 65 and older self-quarantine in their homes; and that the public should avoid crowds of 50 people or more as reasons to postpone the election until June.
The governor’s office issued another statement around 10 p.m. stating that Dr. Acton will order the polls closed as a health emergency, adding that to conduct an election, “would force poll workers and voters to place themselves at an unacceptable health risk of contracting coronavirus.”