COLUMBUS – On the first day of early voting and with just four weeks until Election Day, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced 2,154,235 absentee ballot applications have been received by county boards of elections statewide. This includes 21,570 requests from military and overseas voters whose absentee ballots began to be mailed September 18th. All other absentee ballots will be mailed beginning today, October 6th. Over the past week, 158,839 new absentee ballot requests were submitted by Ohio voters. Totals from early in-person voting will be included in next week’s release.

At the same time during the 2016 election, 1,091,188 absentee ballots had been requested. All data is current as of October 2nd.

Voters who have requested an absentee ballot but choose to vote on election day must vote by provisional ballot. However, those Ohioans who have requested an absentee ballot but choose to vote early in-person will not be required to vote by provisional ballot solely based on the fact that they requested an absentee ballot. 

“A record number of Ohioans have requested an absentee ballot and soon they will see that ballot arrive in their mailbox,” said LaRose. “The clock has started, so don’t wait to return it. Make sure your voice is heard.”

Of the 42 states that run a traditional absentee voting system, a comprehensive review by the Brookings Institute determined no state does it better than Ohio. SOURCE: www.brookings.edu/research/voting-by-mail-in-a-pandemic-a-state-by-state-scorecard/

Ohioans can learn more about absentee voting at VoteOhio.gov.

A full county-by-county breakdown can be found by clicking here (XLXS).

Voters should consider these best practices when they choose the absentee ballot option:

• Fill in the information properly. Review the form to ensure you have filled it out properly, including writing your date of birth where required, not the day’s date, as well as signing your request form.

• Include your e-mail and/or phone number. For the first time in a general election, county board of elections will be calling or e-mailing voters who may need to remedy information on their ballot request form or absentee ballot envelope. Including your information will ensure you can be reached if your ballot request doesn’t have everything filled out properly.

• Don’t wait. To accommodate necessary processing time at the county board of elections and the time required for the United States Postal Service to deliver elections mail, voters should not procrastinate – fill out and mail your absentee ballot request as soon as possible. Note that, by law, ballots are not sent out (other than for overseas voters) until October 6th.

• Double check your return envelope. Before you submit your ballot request form, make sure the envelope is addressed to your county board of elections.

• Track your ballot. Once their ballot request is received by their county board of elections, voters may track their ballot at VoteOhio.gov/Track. As long as your ballot is postmarked by the day before the election and received within 10 days after the election at your county board of elections, your vote will be tabulated.

Absentee voting in Ohio is time-tested and has strong security checks in place.

Ohioans have utilized absentee voting for nearly two decades, and that has allowed Ohio to put in place both the laws and processes necessary to make absentee voting secure against fraud.

• Voter identification and signature are checked TWICE during the process
• Voter list maintenance allows for accurate voter rolls
• Ballot harvesting is against the law in Ohio
• Voters are able to track their ballot on VoteOhio.gov/Track.

These requirements and processes, as well as strict laws against voter fraud, have made absentee voting secure in Ohio and instances of voter fraud exceedingly rare.

Holding the United States Postal Service Accountable. During the primary, the USPS committed to implementing the following protocols at the urging of Secretary LaRose. It’s our understanding that these improvements will be continued this fall:

• USPS will institute “all clear” processes at each sorting facility to ensure all election mail is processed each day.
• Staff will recheck collection bins each day to ensure late arriving ballots are retrieved.
• USPS will set up hand-to-hand delivery for election mail as it makes its way through processing on the Saturday prior to Election Day, from the board of elections to the distribution center.
• Postal facilities will track election mail deliveries to Ohio’s boards of elections
• Election mail will not be routed through the Detroit Regional Distribution Center. Instead it will be kept in-state. 

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