Politics

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's top elections chief is banning county officials from sending voters unsolicited absentee ballot applications ahead of Election Day.

The move by Secretary of State Jon Husted Monday comes after several county boards of elections recently had tied votes on whether to send out applications.

A spokesman for the Republican says he wanted to provide clear guidance to boards, and issued the directive to the state's 88 counties in order to have uniformity.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The board tasked with redrawing Ohio's legislative lines kicks off a week of public hearings Monday with trips to Lima and Toledo.

The Ohio Apportionment Board redraws the state's legislative districts every 10 years to reflect changes in population after each decennial census. A spokesman for the House speaker says the board wants to hear from the public about what works and what doesn't with the current districts.

There have been a lot of discussions that seem to be happening behind the scenes about how to get this resolved before this goes to the ballot to voters in about 80 or so days, in a little over 2 months. There was some talk about how some republican leaders were trying to get union leaders to deal with this.