Last day to register to vote, early voting set

Montgomery County residents can begin early voting the first week of October, and they will be doing it on new machines.

Early voting will start Oct. 8, according to Jan Kelly, director of the Montgomery Board of Elections. The Board of Elections will make and post a video on its website, showing voters how to use the new machines.

“We have 82 days until the election and about 200 days worth of work to do in the meantime,” said Deputy Director Steve Harsman.

Absentee ballots will also be mailed out on Oct. 8. In an off year, like the election this year, Kelly said voters must ask for an absentee ballot.

At the Board of Election’s meeting on Thursday, board members made sure to remind the public that the last day to register to vote in the November election is Oct. 7.

Kenny Henning, southwest regional liaison for the Ohio Secretary of State, said those who haven’t voted in the past 12 elections or in the past six years should check to see if they are on the “Registration Reset” list.

Ohio voters have until Sept. 6 to get off the “reset” list by updating their registration with the county board of elections.

Any voter who doesn’t update their registration will have to re-register to vote by Oct. 7.

Ohio has used this law since 1994, but in 2016 groups representing voters sued Jon Husted, thenOhio secretary of state. A federal appeals court panel in Cincinnati was split 2-1 in ruling the process illegal. Ohio’s voter reset was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2018.

Montgomery County voters should have received a postcard in the mail from the Montgomery County Board of Elections, Henning said, letting them know they were on the reset list.

Ohio voters can search to see if they are on the reset list on the Secretary of State’s website. Voters can also update their registration information on the website.