Officials settle Ohio absentee applications spat

TOLEDO — Ohio will mail absen­tee bal­lot request forms to vot­ers in all coun­ties ahead of the 2012 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, set­tling a dis­pute between the state’s top elec­tion offi­cial and the leader of the state’s largest county. As part of the agree­ment announced Fri­day, Cuya­hoga County offi­cials agreed not to send out unso­licited mail­ings for absen­tee bal­lots for this year’s gen­eral elec­tion. Cuya­hoga County offi­cials in Cleve­land had threat­ened to defy Sec­re­tary of State Jon Husted’s order bar­ring county elec­tions boards from mail­ing the unso­licited appli­ca­tions. The county’s coun­cil ear­lier in the week autho­rized mail­ings to all reg­is­tered voters.