Jennifer Kucera had to rely on her elderly mother to vote in last year’s August election.

Kucera, who lives in suburban Cleveland, has muscular dystrophy and requires the assistance of in-home caregivers to complete daily tasks. She can’t drive and must use public or rental transportation to get from place to place. Even handling mail is difficult: Kucera can’t easily access the mailbox at her apartment complex and asks caregivers to open and send letters on her behalf.

Faced with these challenges, Kucera cast an absentee ballot for Ohio’s Aug. 8, 2023 election. But it wasn’t a simple process, according to a federal lawsuit filed last year: State law limits which relatives can help voters with disabilities and doesn’t allow caregivers − or even grandchildren − to return someone’s ballot. That forced Kucera to seek help from her mother, who has mobility issues of her own and doesn’t live close by.

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“The Assistance Restrictions are divorced from the reality faced by Ohio’s population of voters with disabilities,” stated the complaint filed in December by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Kucera’s story is at the center of a nationally-watched lawsuit unfolding in the months before the November election. In 2023, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country as part of sweeping changes to the Buckeye State’s election system. Republicans in the Legislature cast the bill as a way to boost voter confidence after misinformation ran rampant in 2020.

While the ID requirement grabbed much of the attention, the law’s critics say it also violates the rights of voters with disabilities. Its backers, sounding the alarm over so-called ballot harvesting, argue restricting who can return ballots will help curb already rare cases of voter fraud.

“If people are gathering boxes of ballots and dumping them in a drop box, there’s opportunity for fraud,” said state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, who spearheaded changes to the election law. “We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to secure our elections and make sure people know their vote is being counted in Ohio and counted correctly.”

What does Ohio law say about returning ballots?

Ohio law permits any voter to request an absentee ballot, but people who are hospitalized or homebound because of an illness or disability often need additional assistance. To that end, the statute allows certain family members to handle their relative’s absentee ballot, including spouses, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.

The state’s new election law didn’t change the list of relatives. It’s been in place for years. But advocates believe it violates part of the federal Voting Rights Act, which allows voters with disabilities to get help from anyone except their employer or union representative. Per the secretary of state’s office, that rule is in place for voters who need assistance at a polling place.

It was already a felony for anyone not on the list to possess someone else’s absentee ballot. The updated statute also makes it a felony to return one.

“There are commonsense helpers who are excluded explicitly from helping,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “We believe that grandchildren, roommates, significant others and caregivers should all be able to help a voter.”

Miller said it’s unclear what activities are banned under the law, particularly for groups like the League that dispatch volunteers to help voters. Before filing the lawsuit, court records show, the ACLU contacted Secretary of State Frank LaRose to clarify what is and is not allowed. For instance, would it be illegal for a caregiver or roommate to put a sealed absentee ballot envelope in the mail?

A spokesman for LaRose referred a reporter to Attorney General Dave Yost’s office, which declined to comment on pending litigation.

‘Families are all kinds of things’

Republicans have rooted their defense of Ohio’s law in concerns about ballot collection − disparagingly called ballot harvesting − which is the practice of third parties returning completed ballots on another’s behalf.

Thirty-five states allow someone else to return a voter’s absentee ballot, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The policies vary: Some limit it to family members, while others permit caregivers or anyone chosen by the voter to do so.

Skeptics of the 2020 election drilled down on ballot collection after battleground states changed rules for the COVID-19 pandemic. In Wisconsin, for example, the election commission allowed absentee ballots to be sent to long-term care facilities, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The Ohio lawsuit grabbed the attention of the state GOP and Republican National Committee. In their motion to intervene, Republicans said they have a “substantial interest in preventing changes to the ‘competitive environment’ of elections.”

“Ohio’s election laws should be decided by Ohioans, not out-of-state dark money groups,” former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a January statement. “The RNC is proud to join with the (Ohio GOP) in filing this intervention to protect the Buckeye State’s ballot harvesting ban from undue left-wing attacks and ensure that Ohio voters can cast their ballots with full confidence in their electoral system.”

Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said the lawsuit isn’t about “someone dropping off bales of ballots.” She contends Ohio has failed to accommodate voters with disabilities and ensure their voices can be heard.

As a result, the lawsuit alleges, people like Carol Canavan of North Canton can’t assist their loved ones − even though Canavan helps lead the Canton-area chapter of the League. Her sister-in-law is confined at home and leaves only for medical appointments, so she requested an absentee ballot for the November 2023 election. Her completed ballot got lost in the mail and wasn’t counted.

Canavan lives only seven miles from her sister-in-law. She said she’s not sure what happened to her sister-in-law’s ballot, but she believes it wouldn’t have been an issue if Canavan could have returned it for her.

“Nowadays, families are all kinds of things,” Canavan said. “It seems like if you have a close person you trust, like a caregiver…why would that person to not be allowed to take a ballot in?”

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio law violates rights of voters with disabilities, lawsuit alleges