A ballot counter is ready to read ballots at the Ohio Union on Election Day. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Cleveland.com (Tribune News Service) — Ohio voters who are concerned that their mailed absentee ballots won’t make it to elections officials on time to count have the option to cast a provisional ballot in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
LaRose said in an interview the state has been pushing county boards of elections to keep their ballot tracking systems up to date. In some cases, the county might delay marking a ballot as received, even after the postal service has delivered it to them, because they’re running behind processing mail, he said.
But voters who have been tracking their ballot and not seen it arrive, can cast a provisional ballot at their voting precinct on Tuesday, according to LaRose, a Republican who is the state’s top elections official.
“If you submitted your absentee ballot, and it doesn’t come up on vote.ohio.gov, if you don’t see that it’s been received, then yes… You can come to your Election Day polling location, where you’ll be offered a provisional ballot,” LaRose said.
In Ohio, mail ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 2, and as long as they arrive within 10 days after the election. So if the mailed ballot arrives during that time, the voter’s provisional ballot will be discarded.
But, LaRose said, “If the mail ballot doesn’t come in, then at least they’ve captured your intention, and they can count that provisional ballot for the final tally, the one that really counts.”
Provisional ballots are different than normal ballots in that they aren’t counted immediately. Instead, elections officials take extra days to review them to confirm questions about a voter’s eligibility. If accepted, they will eventually be recorded in the election’s final count.
Voters can track the status of their mailed ballot at http://voteohio.gov/track.
President Donald Trump generated controversy when in early September, he told his supporters who had cast mail ballots to go to the polls to make sure they had been counted.
Asked about the president’s comments, LaRose said at the time voters should not try to test the voting system, saying doing so could risk getting charged with voter fraud.
But this week, LaRose said it will come down to the voter’s intentions.
“They should be transparent with the poll worker when they show up and say, ‘I requested an absentee ballot, I mailed it in, but it’s not showing up as having been received.’ So in that scenario, they’ll be offered that provisional ballot. That’s why that safeguard exists,” he said.
“When someone’s intentionally trying to commit voter fraud, that’s a very different matter. That’s the kind of thing that we would prosecute for. But when someone’s simply trying to make sure their vote is counted and their voice is heard, then there’s no problem there. That’s why provisional ballots exist,” he said.
Depending on how close the tally is after election night, late-arriving ballots could end playing a decisive role in this year’s elections, due to the record number of mail ballots that have been requested amid the coronavirus pandemic.
