TOLEDO, Ohio — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday almost 1.4 absentee ballot applications have been received by county boards of elections statewide just seven weeks ahead of Election Day.
The number includes 15,806 requests from military and overseas voters whose absentee ballots will be mailed beginning this Friday, Sept. 18. All other ballots will be mailed beginning Oct. 6.
In Lucas and Wood Counties, close to 45,000 and 14,000 voters have requested their ballots, respectively. In total,109,227 northwest Ohio voters have sent out their applications.
Over the past week, almost 400,000 new absentee ballot requests were made by Ohio voters.
At the same time during the 2016 election, 524,631 absentee ballots had been requested. All data is current as of Sept. 11.
To prepare Ohio boards of elections for the large amount of voters requesting absentee ballots this year, LaRose sent 87% of Ohio’s $12.8 million CARES Act allocation directly to the county boards to strengthen their election infrastructure, hire temporary personnel, and more.
You can check below the number of applications received by northwest Ohio county boards of elections:
- Lucas County: 44,541
- Wood County: 13,469
- Defiance County: 3,168
- Hancock County: 3,649
- Henry County: 2,594
- Ottawa County: 3,707
- Sandusky County: 5,318
- Seneca County: 5,247
- Williams County: 2,696
- Paulding County: 1,443
- Putnam County: 3,252
- Fulton County: 3,349
- Huron County: 6,470
- Erie County: 10,324
Voters should consider these best practices when they choose the absentee ballot option:
Fill in the information properly. Review the form to ensure you have filled it out properly, including writing your date of birth where required, not the day’s date, as well as signing your request form.
Include your e-mail and/or phone number. For the first time in a general election, county boards of elections will be calling or e-mailing voters who may need to remedy information on their ballot request form or absentee ballot envelope.
Don’t wait. To accommodate necessary processing time at your county board of elections and the time required for the United States Postal Service to deliver elections mail, voters should not procrastinate – fill out and mail your absentee ballot request as soon as possible.
Double-check your return envelope. Before you submit your ballot request form, make sure the envelope is addressed to your county board of elections.
Track your ballot. Once your ballot request is received by your county board of elections, you may your their ballot at VoteOhio.gov/Track. As long as your ballot is postmarked by the day before the election and received within 10 days after the election at your county board of elections, your vote will be counted.
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