From The Columbus Dispatch:

Republican legislative leaders say Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is defying a new state law requiring that all voters be mailed an absentee-ballot application, potentially affecting voters in rural counties.

But Brunner, a Democrat, says those lawmakers never bothered to consult her about the new law, passed in June as part of a major budget bill, and they didn’t pony up enough money to pay for it.

The dust-up is over a directive that Brunner issued this week in which she says counties have the option of mailing an absentee-ballot application to every voter with the return postage for sending it back.

The legislature wanted all voters to get an application with the required notice of the Nov. 4 election that must be sent to all voters Sept. 5. The legislature approved $3 million to reimburse counties, but Brunner said that’s not enough.

Her directive would allocate part of the $3 million to each county based on its percentage of registered voters in the state, and she is requiring that any state money be used first to reimburse the costs for return postage.

As a result, many counties likely will opt not to mail an application at all because they can’t afford to pay the difference, said Shannon Leininger, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials.

Rep. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican and chairman of the House Finance Committee, said Ohio’s three largest counties, Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton, are already mailing applications, so lawmakers approved the new mandate and new money “so smaller, poorer counties are afforded the same opportunities.”

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