Elections Board rejects 744 ballots

The Lorain County Board of Elections voted May 11 to reject 744 ballots cast in the primary election.

The primary election took place April 28 and was conducted through absentee and provisional ballots and restricted in-person voting due to concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The elections board received 42,698 absentee ballots and recommended 611 ballots be rejected, according to documents.

Out of the rejected ballots, the elections board voted to reject 421 ballots that either missed the deadline or were not received on time.

Sixty-four ballots were rejected for being returned without an identification envelope and no return address.

Fifty-seven ballots were rejected after being returned without a signature.

The elections board also rejected 33 ballots that were returned without proper identification:

• 10 ballots with incorrect ID information on ID envelope

• 16 ballots with no information on ID envelope

• Seven ballots left the ID envelope blank

The elections board rejected 21 ballots in which the ID envelope was received but contained no ballot.

One ballot was rejected for being returned with a non matching signature.

Lorain County Elections Board Director Paul Adams said the ballot in question was referred to the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office for review.

Provisional ballots

The elections board received 574 provisional ballots and rejected 133 for an acceptance rate of 76.8 percent.

It also rejected 81 ballots for missing the deadline; 35 ballots were rejected due to provisional voters not being registered in Ohio.

Four ballots were rejected by the elections board for provisional voters who voted in the wrong precinct (at the correct polling place) and two were rejected for provisional voters who already had cast a ballot.

According to an unofficial report from the elections board, Lorain County had 208,289 registered voters as of March 17 and had 47,757 ballots cast for the May primary:

• Registered Voters – Democrat: 24,153

• Registered Voters – Republican: 17,545

• Registered Voters – Libertarian: 0

• Registered Voters – Non partisan: 166,591

The elections board is scheduled to meet May 14 to formally certify the election results.