Deciding election may take awhile
State official says ‘historic’ turnout is expected
So you cast your ballot, basked in the glow of performing your civic duty and now are wondering who the country will be complaining about for the next four years.
You won’t be alone. With the doubling of mail ballots and tripling of early in-person voting, Secretary of State Frank Larose predicted “a recordbreaking election with historic turnout” on Tuesday.
He forecasts that more than 6 million of Ohio’s nearly 8.1 million voters could cast ballots, which would place turnout at 75% or higher.
Ohio’s modern-day record for voter turnout of 73.9% came in 1980 when Republican Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter to win the first of his two terms. Turnout four years ago, when Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, was 71.3% in Ohio.
Leroinica Ayers was among the early voters Monday. She had planned to vote early last week but life got in the way, she said.
So Ayers, 44, along with her 30-year-old daughter, Markeisha, and a gaggle of grandkids rushed to the Franklin County Board of Elections on Tuesday afternoon to make sure they could get in line before the 2 p.m. cutoff.
Markeisha Ayers said they wanted to vote early
so that they could come together. Otherwise, they’d be voting at different polling sites on Election Day. Both women also have health issues, so voting together allowed them to take turns standing in line, she said.
Several elections officials and Franklin County deputy sheriffs marked the end of the line with a neon orange flag. As 2 p.m. ticked closer, many voters ran to the line to make sure they could vote early.
Those who got there too late were turned away. Some angrily threw books they brought to read in line, while others argued with officials that they were there on time.
For those who didn’t make it and will be voting on Election Day, local officials have some advice.
“Wash your hands, wear your mask, social distance,” said Aaron Sellers, a spokesman for the Franklin County Board of Elections. “We believe that if people follow these measures, these locations are certainly as safe as we can make them.”
If you don’t have a mask, election workers will offer you one. The Franklin County Board of Elections has more than 200,000 masks available, Sellers said.
Voters who don’t wear a mask can still vote but will be asked to cast their ballots curbside. Voters who refuse to wear a mask or vote curbside will be able to vote inside their polling location, but election workers are instructed to keep them away from others.
Election workers and registered poll observers are required to wear masks.
Once the last votes are cast and the polls in Ohio close at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the only thing left to do is figure out who won the Buckeye State. So when will we know? Good question. Unofficially, we aren’t really sure. Officially, not for another few weeks.
Ohio law allows any absentee ballot postmarked by Monday – the day before the election – to be counted as long as it arrives at the county board of elections within 10 days of the election, so by Nov. 13. That means it’s possible for a significant portion of ballots to not be counted on election night, but still affect the outcome in the days after.
It will be possible to project some (unofficial) winners on election night. For example, if a candidate is leading a race by 1,000 votes but only 100 ballots are outstanding, the candidate who is
losing couldn’t make up the difference.
But be wary of premature declarations of victory. Official results won’t come until Nov. 18. And at last count, more than 840,000 out of about 3.2 million absentee ballots requested across the state had not been returned.
Voters also will cast tens of thousands of provisional ballots on Election Day, given to voters whose eligibility is in question.
In 2016, President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Ohio by about 447,000 votes.
If results tilt from one candidate to another between Election Day and the conclusion of counting, Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose has told voters that is not a sign of trouble but rather the system working as intended.
“Results will only be released twice – once when the county boards of elections upload their unofficial results to the secretary of state’s office and again after each county completes its official canvass results and (they) are certified by the Ohio secretary of state,” Larose spokeswoman Maggie Sheehan wrote in an email. That’s consistent with a directive Larose issued to local boards of elections.
On election night, local elections officials will tally all of the votes from those who cast ballots early – either in person, through the mail or at drop boxes – and on Election Day and report them to LaRose’s office.
That likely will take hours, going late into Tuesday night and spilling over into Wednesday morning. Here are some
tips for keeping track of it all.
How to watch the results in Ohio
Dispatch.com will have a feed showcasing election results as they roll in.
If you have trouble finding it there, the Ohio secretary of state’s office will post rolling results for presidential, statewide and district races at https://liveresults.ohiosos.gov/. But that will not include countywide or local election results. For those, you’ll have to go to the county board of elections.
When results will be available
The first batch of unofficial election results will filter through the secretary of state’s office around 8 p.m., 30 minutes after the polls close.
Unlike some other states, Ohio boards of elections are allowed to process absentee ballots returned before Election Day, but cannot count them until the polls are closed. The first results mostly will reflect absentee ballots and early in-person ballots received by Election Day.
Additional votes added throughout the night and into the next morning will come from ballots cast in person on Election Day, and perhaps a smattering of absentee ballots dropped off at county elections boards.
Why those results are considered unofficial
Absentee ballots postmarked by
Nov. 2 that arrive at the board of elections by Nov. 13 must be counted under Ohio law. Election night results will not include those votes and cannot be considered official.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office has promised to provide the number of outstanding absentee ballots by county on election night so that those watching results can gauge whether those ballots could tilt a race. A total of provisional ballots – cast by voters whose eligibility is questioned – for each county also is promised.
Why you should be careful about accepting declarations of victory
Unofficial results won’t include all of the ballots, so a candidate could declare victory even though he or she still might lose the election.
For example, Democrats have cast more early votes than Republicans in Franklin County, so the first results reported on election night could show a Democratic blowout before Election Day ballots that could alter the outcome are counted.
Then the ballots received in the following 10 days will change the numbers yet again.
Timeline for official results
Typically, boards of elections in Ohio have 21 days to finish what is called the “official canvass.” Once that is done, results are certified.
But Larose has directed them, as has been done in past presidential elections, to expedite the canvass and certify results faster. The official canvass must be finished by 2 p.m. on Nov. 18 to provide enough time to conduct a potential recount before the Electoral College meets in midDecember.
Larose has said no interim results will be provided between the conclusion of election night reporting and the completion of the official canvass, which will include provisional ballots and absentee ballots received in the 10-day period after Election Day.
Voters will have several days to “cure” technical problems – such as the absence of a signature – on early and provisional ballot problems after polls close Tuesday.
The major portions of these elections laws have been on the books since at least 2006.
Dispatch reporters Sheridan Hendrix, Megan Henry and Randy Ludlow contributed to this story.
rrouan@dispatch.com@rickrouan