DEAR EDITOR:

Thank you to Frank LaRose for making it extremely difficult to find the absentee ballot application online. Upon visiting the Mahoning County Board of Elections website and clicking on “Request an Absentee Ballot” then “Download Application Form,” I am redirected to the Ohio Secretary of State website. Scrolling past a smiling photo of Mr. LaRose, I finally see “Absentee Ballot Request” at the bottom, which takes me to yet another page which, after reading through a jumble of directions and links, seems to require me to fill out an HTML form before finally being able to download the actual form.

As Secretary of State, Mr. LaRose should be making the process of obtaining and casting an absentee ballot easier, not more challenging.

Claims of voter fraud, particularly among absentee ballots, are highly exaggerated. According to the Ohio Capital Journal in 2023, “Since taking office in early 2019, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has referred more than 640 cases of potential voter fraud to state or county investigators. Almost none of those incidents resulted in charges — much less convictions.”

I have voted via absentee ballot for several years, as have many voters across the tri-county area. Ohio does not require a voter to provide a reason for requesting one.

For our rapidly aging population, the ability to cast an absentee ballot is often the only alternative to visiting the polls during early voting or on election day.

If you are a registered voter and unable to go to the polls to vote, save yourself time and aggravation – go directly to the absentee ballot application:

• English: www.ohiosos.gov/assets/11-a_english.pdf

• Spanish: www.ohiosos.gov/assets/11-a_spanish.pdf

Print out the form, read the guidance, fill it out no later than April 28 and return it to your county board of elections:

• Mahoning County Board of Elections, 345 Oak Hill Ave., Suite 101, Youngstown, OH 44502

• Trumbull County Board of Elections, 2947 Youngstown Road SE, Warren, OH 44484

If you are not registered to vote, visit https://olvr.ohiosos.gov/ to vote in this year’s Aug. 4 special election and the Nov. 3 general election.

Your ballot WILL make a difference — VOTE in the May 5 primary!

JOANNE OFFILL

Canfield