OHIO — Those who want to avoid lines on election day or want to avoid contact with others because of the pandemic may have elected to vote absentee ballot for this year’s general election.
But if you don’t fill out and return the ballot correctly, there’s a chance your vote might not count.
Charlie Frye is the director of the Ashtabula County Board of Elections in northeast Ohio. He’s working to make sure all voters understand how to properly fill out an absentee ballot, starting with step one when you receive your absentee ballot materials in the mail.
“In your envelope, you're going to have your ballot. You're going to have an ID envelope. You're going to have instructions. And you're going to have a return envelope,” said Frye.
Once you carefully vote on your ballot, Frye said it’s very important voters put their ballot inside the Identification envelope and seal it.
But it's even more important to fill out the required information on the front of the ID envelope as this is how the board of elections for your county will verify that the voter is who they say they are.
“So they're going to put their name on the address they're registered at. Then the date of birth. So that would be their birth date. In this case, they can put their driver's license number or their last four digits of their social. Then the date of election, which is Nov. 3 ... sign and date, then they will put their ballot in this envelope (ID envelope). So when we get this ballot back in, we're going to look at this on our system, give credit to John Doe for voting. We're going to use a signature to verify that that's the signature on file, so somebody else didn't vote his ballot for him,” said Frye.
If you accidentally leave a line blank on your ID envelope, Frye said the boards of elections in Ohio will send you what’s called an 11-F form explaining what you need to do to fix the problem. You’ll have until 10 days post-election to correct your mistake, otherwise your ballot gets rejected, meaning it will not count.
“So, let's say for instance, a voter forgot to sign their name. We would send them a notice, a form that would inform them that there was some missing information and they can come right into our office during business hours and take care of that,” said Frye.
Frye said another thing to remember is that there should only be one ballot per ID envelope, meaning multiple family members cannot share an envelope.
“Every ballot that is mailed out is going to have an ID envelope that comes with that particular ballot,” said Frye.
Lastly, once your ballot is inside your completed ID envelope, you can drop it off at your local board of elections drop box or inside their office during business hours.
If you plan to mail the ballot back, make sure you’re using the correct postage. Some counties require 55-cent postage, and others like Cuyahoga County require 70-cent postage. Be sure to check what the required return postage is with your local board of elections.
Frye says your board of elections wants all votes to count and that’s why they give you opportunities to correct mistakes. But adds it’s best to double-check yourself to help the process run more efficiently.
And if you end up wanting to vote in-person, you can, but Frye said to wait until you receive your absentee ballot in the mail. He said to wait because you’ll have to bring your absentee ballot into the board of elections for them to “soil” or destroy it before you vote in person. This ensures all voters only receive one ballot, as everyone can only vote one time.
If you have any questions regarding voting you can contact your local board of elections or go to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website at voteohio.gov.
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October 12, 2020 at 04:00PM
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How to Properly Fill Out Your Absentee Ballot - Spectrum News 1
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