The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Count begins as polls close
Nov. 3 is Election Day for voters and counting day for the Lorain County Board of Elections staff who will add up the numbers once the polls close.
Lorain County has 218,502 voters, the highest it’s ever been, heading into the Nov. 3 election, said Paul Adams, director of the Lorain County Board of Elections.
There were 65,041 voter requests for ballots by mail.
As of Oct 28, at least 27,347 voters visited the Lorain County Board of Elections to vote early in person.
Election staff already have started processing those in-person and mail ballots of absentee voters.
But, there is no running score yet for issues and races from the presidency on down.
Adams explained how the counting begins on election night and continues until board members Marilyn Jacobcik, Thomas J. Smith, Jack Baird and Anthony Giardini certify the final, official count later in November.
The counting process
On Nov. 3, the Board of Elections will end the day by publishing final, unofficial election results. Those figures include:
• All early in-person absentee votes.
Adams ant icipated that number would reach 35,000 ballots by Election Day.
• Regular ballots from voting on Election Day.
• A “very, very high percentage” of mail absentee ballots.
To be included in the final unofficial numbers of election night, a mailed absentee ballot must arrive in the mail, or the voter must drop it off at the elections board office, by the time the polls close.
Later in the mail
The final, unofficial count will not include mailed absentee ballots that have not arrived at the Board of Elections by 7:30 p.m., Nov. 3, the time the polls close, Adams said.
Later, the final official count will include mailed ballots postmarked by Nov. 2, and that arrive after Nov. 3 and before Nov. 13.
For example, if a voter mails a ballot back on Oct. 30, but it does not arrive at the elections board office until Nov. 4, “it’s still going to count because it was postmarked on or before the second of November,” Adams said.
Those ballots are valid, but were not at the board office for the unofficial count.
“So, it’s still going to count, it’s just, obviously, we cannot add something into the unofficial count that we don’t even have yet,” Adams said. “So, anything that we have in the building by the close of polls on Election Day, is going to be included,” in the final unofficial count.
People mistakenly think absentee ballots are not counted, or are counted only if the election is close, Adams said.
“That is completely false,” he said. “To me as an election official, this has to be one of the biggest urban legends; I have no idea where this came from.”
The first report of results on election night includes all early in-person ballots and the vast majority of mail absentee ballots, Adams said.
So, absentee ballots are among the first ones counted and reported.
On election night, elections board staff spend time waiting for poll workers to drive in results from Lorain County rural southern townships, Adams said.
Those ballots usually are the last ones counted that night.
In Ohio, there is a difference between processing ballots and tabulating them, Adams said.
Boards of elections may begin processing absentee ballots once those are mailed out starting Oct. 6, he said.
That means staff may verify voter information on the identification envelope of the absentee ballot.
They can open the envelopes and scan the ballots, Adams said.
But the elections staff may
not enter data into the tabulation server to generate a report of results so far, he said.
That won’t happen until polls close on Election Day.
As for the tabulation server, it is not connected to the Internet.
Limited staff are allowed in that part of the building and a Democrat and Republican both must enter the room to access it, Adams said.
Starting Nov. things happen.
Election staff begin processing mail-in ballots that arrive after Nov. 3.
Adams predicted most of those will arrive Nov. 4 and 5, but ballots will trickle in and will be counted if they get to the board office up to 10 days after the election.
Staff also begin reviewing provisional ballots cast at the board office and at the polls, Adams said.
Provisional ballots are provided to voters whose names do not appear in the poll books at voting precincts.
Provisional ballots allow people who move to vote in the correct precinct, change their address and have their ballots counted, Adams said.
Meeting soon
4, two
After Election Day, the Lorain County Board of Elections will hold two meetings, Adams said.
The first is to review provisional ballots and absentee ballots that may have defects, such as improper identification or a voter not being registered to vote at least 30 days before the election, which is required by state law.
The four board members will determine which of those ballots to count or reject.
Once that happens, the staff begin the official count, adding in the valid provisional and absentee ballots.
After that, the Board of Elections will meet again to certify the final official count.
Those are the numbers that become part of Lorain County’s election history.
As of Oct. 29, the board had not yet set dates for those two follow-up meetings.
The Board of elections must certify the final official count by Nov. 18, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.
Recount possible
The official count is the tally that determines if a candidate race or issue needs a recount.
On election night, people may say a race looks really close, but election staff don’t prepare for recounts based on those results, because the numbers may change for the official count, Adams said.
Counties have different policies for creating backups of votes, Adams said.
Lorain County uses touchscreen voting machines that generate paper ballot cards put into scanners. So, the ballot information exists electronically and on paper.
The paper ballot cards and scanner memory sticks are stored separately, so if one or the other were damaged or destroyed, there is a backup, Adams said.
The elections board office has its own security system, and this season, has 24-hour security provided by the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office.