Letter to the Editor (LTE) Toolkit for

Supporting Boards of Elections 

April 2025

 

This toolkit is designed to help you write a quick (usually less than 200 word) letter to the editor to advocate on behalf of election officials, call out the good work you’ve seen at your local county Board of Elections, and support the bipartisan, statutory processes election workers oversee in service of fair, secure, accurate and transparent elections.

 

Quick Reference

Click on the section you want to know more about

 

Background

Our elections are administered by the 88 county Boards of Elections (BOEs). Each BOE has a bipartisan team of staff (director and deputy director) and a four member board (2 Republicans, 2 Democrats) responsible for executing the county’s elections processes per state law. The BOE staff works closely with the decision-making board to set agendas, budgets and programs, and ensure all of the work is carried out in a bipartisan way.

Over the last two years, BOEs have seen a tremendous increase in workload, potential physical and cyber security threats, and new requirements without matching funding for implementation. 

This year, BOEs are facing additional threats to their work coming from both the federal (SAVE Act; White House Executive Order on elections ) and state (Senate Bill 153; House Bill 233) level. In addition to disenfranchising millions of voters, these laws, if allowed to take effect, would compound the amount of work election officials must do and burden BOEs with significant new costs. The SAVE Act would even subject election workers  to criminal prosecution if they make a mistake in the voter registration process, and opens BOEs up to frivolous public lawsuits.

In April, the Ohio House passed a budget that abolishes the Ohio Elections Commission, redirecting the Commission’s duties to the Ohio Secretary of State and BOEs. BOEs are also dealing with new voter registration forms that introduce additional layers of election administration, a directive they received just as a statewide election was to begin.  Neither of these changes came with additional funding. This is the pattern: more obligations, no resources to meet those obligations. 

As voting rights advocates, we must help educate our communities about the growing pressures election officials face. At the same time, direct action is needed to bring these issues to the attention of the BOE board members, election officials, and county commissioners responsible for our election administration.

LTEs are an effective way to drive awareness to the public and our lawmakers of the growing challenges to the human and financial capacities of our BOEs as well as to amplify efforts to get them the resources they need to do their job. As important, these LTEs let election workers know they are seen and appreciated. 

Our LTE talking points are below, along with general formatting tips and suggestions to help get your letter published. If you have questions or need assistance with your letter, please contact Kelly Dufour at kdufour@commoncause.org, Greer Aeschbury at greer@allvotingislocal.org, or Elisabeth Warner at ewarner@lwvohio.org for support.

Talking Points

  • Vote no on SB153/HB233! 
  • Unfunded mandates: Changes to election law rarely come with funding support. This not only makes the vital but difficult work of an election worker harder, it takes time and resources away from helping voters and safeguarding election security. 
  • Big changes to election law should happen slowly: Massive changes to election law pushed through the legislature without deep review by experts and impacted communities are prone to error, creating confusion for voters and the election officials who bear the burden of administration and compliance, escalating risks to election accuracy, and wasting taxpayer dollars.
  • Recent election law changes not yet implemented: BOEs are still working to get previous election law, like the 2023 DATA Act, into place. New law shouldn’t be considered until election officials are given resources to administer existing law.
  • Personal risk: Some new and proposed laws put election workers at unnecessary personal risk, adding more stress to an already difficult job and discouraging prospective election workers.
  • Gratitude: We see your challenges and are grateful for you, BOE friends!
  • For general messaging in support of BOEs and a helpful formula to use when writing, go here. 

Tips for Composing Your LTE

  • Make it short and get right to the point.
  • Use plain language, put it in your own words.
  • Respect your reader.
  • Do not submit a form letter; newspapers are interested in original comments.
  • Linking your comment to a specific recent news story or opinion piece can show you are a reader/subscriber.
  • It is OK to refer to a recent LTE, editorial or guest column/op-ed on the same topic, especially if you have a contrary opinion (newspapers like to think they are engaging their readers in dialogue).
  • Include your name, street address, daytime phone number and email address (these won’t be published but will allow the paper to contact you to verify that you sent it).

Tips for Getting Your LTE Published

  • Letters to the editor are typically published on the opinion page or section online.
  • Adhere to the specified word limit of the newspaper. If no specific word limit is provided, keep your LTE under 200 words. This also helps ensure that your LTE makes it into the print version of the newspaper if there is one.
  • Letter writers don’t need to establish specific credentials for commenting on a particular topic.
  • Send the letter electronically either in the body of an email or in an attached word doc.
  • Don’t send a PDF (difficult to edit and newspapers may need to edit your letter for length, style or to correct misspellings).
  • Don’t mail a typed or handwritten letter.
  • Look at the opinion section of the newspaper you are targeting to determine where to email your letter.

 

Submitting to a Local Newspaper

A summary of major Ohio newspaper requirements and media outlets by region are below. Please keep in mind that it can be helpful to refer to a recent relevant article or op-ed in your LTE to make it more timely.  Be sure to check your city’s paper to find guidance on word count. 

 

Here are many helpful links for local papers, but if you are submitting to another paper, you can often find their preferred way of submission at the bottom of a newspaper’s website in their footer (look for “submit news” or “contact us”).

 

Additional Outlets by Region

NORTHEAST OHIO

 

NORTHWEST OHIO

 

CENTRAL OHIO

 

SOUTHEAST OHIO

 

SOUTHWEST OHIO