Ohio’s secretary of state challenges a court ruling allowing more ballot drop boxes.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose of Ohio, a Republican, on Wednesday pushed back against a court ruling that had paved the way for counties to deploy multiple drop boxes for absentee ballots in November.

Mr. LaRose said in a written statement to the court that he could not comply with the judge’s ruling because Ohio law mandates that only one drop box may be placed in each county.

The Ohio Democratic Party had filed a lawsuit saying that Mr. LaRose was disenfranchising voters by trying to limit the number of ballot boxes. On Monday, Mr. LaRose moved to block the installation of six drop boxes at libraries in Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland and a substantial percentage of Black voters in the state, a battleground that President Trump won in 2016.

Judge Richard A. Frye of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court ruled on Tuesday that state law did not preclude the installation of multiple drop boxes per county and that Mr. LaRose’s order was “arbitrary and unreasonable” during a pandemic. Mr. LaRose will appeal the ruling, his spokeswoman said.