Secretary of State Jon Husted / AP Photo
Paul Kostyu reports:
More than 920,000 absentee ballot applications to vote by mail have been received by county boards of elections statewide, according to Secretary of State Jon Husted.
County boards of elections will begin sending ballots to eligible voters who have requested them Tuesday, 35 days ahead of the Nov. 6 election. Early in-person voting in Ohio begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.
“We are ready,” Husted said at a press conference this afternoon. “Boards of elections are prepared and all voters can have confidence that Ohio will conduct a fair, open and secure general election.”
Still pending in federal court, however, is a case that could change whether polls are open the weekend and Monday before election. Husted wants to close early voting ono those days, but a federal judge ruled a state law prohibiting weekend voting unconstitutional. He ordered Husted to keep the polls open. The state has appealed.
Husted released the following numbers regarding this year’s election:
- 7.8 million Ohioans are currently registered to vote, which is down about 400,000 due to purging of registrations that were either invalid or duplicative or of voters who are deceased;
- 922,199 absentee ballot applications have been received as of Friday, Sept. 28;
- 10,823 military and overseas absentee ballots have been distributed as of Friday;
- Nearly 6.9 million absentee ballot applications were sent out to Ohio voters over the course of two statewide mailings;
- 62,600 voters and counting have updated their address online.
Voters must submit absentee ballot requests to county boards of elections no later than noon on Nov. 3. Forms also can also be downloaded at: www.MyOhioVote.com. Voted ballots must be postmarked by the day before Election Day and received no later than the 10 days after the election; that is by Nov. 16. Absentee ballots also may be delivered in person to boards of elections by the close of the polls on Election Day. They may not be returned at polling locations.
Husted said he expects about a 70 percent turnout of Ohio voters this year, the same as in 2008.
