Process begins for absentee ballot voting

Ohioans are trying to stay healthy during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

As that happens, they also are dealing with complications in the voting process in a swing state in a presidential election year.

The Lorain County Board of Elections is offering guidance to help local voters cast their ballots by mail, said Paul Adams, director of the Lorain County Board of Elections.

Before March 17, about 17,000 of Lorain County’s 208,000 registered voters cast their ballots for the primary, Adams said.

The voting process will continue again soon.

Lorain County voters who already requested absentee ballots to vote by mail will get them starting next week, Adams said.

As of April 1, the board had more than 7,000 mailed requests for absentee ballots, he said.

That number was up from about 5,000 the day before.

Elections staff are preparing for a deluge of ballot requests, Adams said.

“At this point, that number is going to increase significantly,” he said. “I think over the next few days, the number is just going to increase exponentially.”

Adams offered an update on the best ways for Lorain County residents to participate in the election.

Get a ballot

Absentee ballot request forms are posted online at loraincountyelections.us.

The easiest way to obtain an absentee ballot is to print that request form, fill it out and mail it to the Lorain County Board of Elections.

The board will mail back a ballot that voters can complete and then send back.

Make your own

If voters do not have access to a printer, they can

Due to COVID-19, the Lorain County Board of Elections recommends voters avoid the office.

But elections staff can help by phone. Call 440-3265900.

More information is posted online at www.loraincountyelections.us.

Voters should not show up at the board office expecting to cast a ballot. Right now there is no regular inperson voting at the Lorain County Board of Elections or any other elections board. There will be limited inperson voting to accommodate handicap-access and homeless voters on April 28, but those are expected to be very small categories in Lorain County, said Paul Adams, director of the Lorain County Board of Elections.

make their own absentee ballot request form.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has created an information sheet for voters to make their own request forms.

That sheet is posted at loraincountyelections.us.

“We already have seen a number of Lorain County voters just write all that information down on a sheet of paper and send it in,” Adams said.

Dates available

When requesting an absentee

ballot, the correct election date is March 17.

However, the Board of Elections will honor absentee ballot requests that use the date March 17, June 2, or any date in between.

At first glance, it may seem strange to request a ballot for an election that already has passed.

“It is definitely strange, but the way that the legislature wrote the law, the law contemplates that the election is still on March 17,” Adams said.

The only thing the legislature extended is the voting period for that election, he said.

Identification needed

Voters must provide identification with requests for absentee ballots. Acceptable ID:

• An Ohio driver’s license number or state ID card number. A photocopy of the license is not required.

• The last four digits of the Social Security number. A photocopy of the Social Security card is not required.

• A copy of another form of photo ID, military ID, utility bill, government check or bank statement with a voter’s name and current address.

Family voting

One envelope may include multiple absentee ballot request forms.

For example, a family

with more than one voter can mail all their request forms together, Adams said.

Save time

Printing a request form or making your own, and mailing those in, saves time because it cuts out a step in the voting process, Adams said.

Voters without computer access may write to the Board of Elections to ask for absentee ballot request forms.

The board will mail the form to the voter, who then fills out that request and mails it in.

“We are sending out hundreds and hundreds of absentee ballot request forms that voters have asked for,” Adams said.

The Board of Elections will process the request form and mail back a ballot.

Then the voter fills out the ballot and mails it back to the board of elections, Adams said.

But the mail and processing takes time, so cutting out the request for an absentee ballot request form will save time for voters and the Board of Elections.

The Board of Elections address is: 1985 North Ridge Road East, Lorain, OH, 44055.

Stamp needed

Voters must remember to attach postage if they mail a request for an absentee ballot to the Board of Elections.

Ballots have postage paid

For this election, county elections boards will pay for postage for voters to return completed ballots by mail.

The exact total cost will depend on voter turnout.

Most ballots in Lorain County will cost 65 cents to send through the mail, Adams said.

“Much of this stuff is very much uncharted territory for boards of elections and for voters,” he said. “This is just another example of something that’s never happened before in the state of Ohio.”

One ballot per envelope

Ballots must be returned in separate envelopes.

“When you get a ballot, you can’t mail ballots back together,” Adams said.

Issues or party?

Voters must remember to select a ballot because this is a primary election.

Voters can request a Republican, Democratic, Libertarian or issues-only ballot, Adams said.

Party ballots include issues.

Voters who request a party ballot also will get to choose on issues because issues are included on those ballots, Adams said.

Party ballots only include candidates of that political party.

On deadline

Absentee ballots must be postmarked by April 27 and show up at the Board of Elections office by May 8.

Absentee ballots may be returned in person to the board office by April 28.

The Lorain County Board of Elections also will install an after-hours drop box that will have video monitoring.

Reason for delay

Fear of spreading the novel coronavirus, disrupted the state’s March 17 primary.

Since then, no one in Lorain County has been able to cast a ballot for that election, Adams said.

The reason for that is because county boards of elections were waiting for guidance from Ohio lawmakers.

That happened when the General Assembly approved House Bill 197, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law at the end of last week.

Once that happened, the Lorain County elections board had to get new envelopes printed for voters to return their absentee ballots.

As a result, Lorain County absentee ballots will go out in the mail soon.

Voters should start getting them next week, Adams said.