Did you remember that Election Day is next week?

Well, what’s left of one, anyway, after the coronavirus nixed Ohio’s scheduled March 17 primary. State lawmakers moved the date to April 28.

By now, Joe Biden has in effect sewn up the Democratic presidential nomination, although the names of several other hopefuls from the donkey crowd are still on the ballot. And President Donald Trump is unopposed in Ohio.

The remaining candidates in contested primaries, and advocates of issues such as school levies, have been forced to run almost entirely virtual campaigns in an election that is now being conducted almost entirely by mail.

>> This story is being provided free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. You can find more stories on coronavirus here. Please support local journalism by subscribing to The Columbus Dispatch at subscribe.dispatch.com.

In the past few days, Columbus State Community College supporters sent mailers and texts promoting its proposed 0.65-mill, $300 million bond issue to Franklin County voters. But other campaigns are struggling to remain visible; many are simply repeating themes they had emphasized prior to March 17.

If you want to be part of the voting fun, you need to launch the two-step process now because it takes several days to complete:

1. You must apply for an absentee ballot. You have three ways to do this: Print out an application form from www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-ballot; or contact your county board of elections and it will mail you one; or make your own form — but be careful, because it must include specific information spelled out here: www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/makeyourown. Once you get the application, fill it out, sign it, add postage and mail it in. Under “date of election” on the form, write March 17, 2020.

2. If you did everything right, you should get your official ballot in a few days. Fill it out, sign it, get everything in the right envelope, and mail it in — postage is prepaid.

Deadline: Your ballot must be postmarked by April 27 or dropped off at your county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on April 28.

There will be limited in-person voting on April 28 at each county elections board office, but only for people with disabilities and those who don’t have a home mailing address.

If you cast an early ballot before the original March 17 primary date, you don’t get to vote again.

Want to learn about the candidates in contested primaries and about local ballot issues? For central Ohio counties, check out our voters guide at Dispatch.com/votersguide.

Weird election night

As if an Election Day with virtually no polling places open weren’t odd enough, election night will be different, too.

How?

In any contests in which the vote margin is relatively small, we won’t know a winner for sure until May 8.

Technically, there’s always a 10-day delay in the final count to allow the tabulation of overseas, military and valid provisional ballots. But this year, with an (almost) all-by-mail election that allows any ballots postmarked by April 27 to be counted through May 8, the change in vote totals from election-night results could be larger than usual.

The election-night totals will include ballots cast as long ago as Feb. 19, the start of the original early-voting period.

Incumbent’s advantage

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat facing a primary challenge from the left from Morgan Harper, has devoted TV ads in recent weeks not to touting her re-election, but to talking to voters about COVID-19.

And she’s definitely departed from usual campaign fare through a three-part series of YouTube videos. The first video from “Beatty Book Time” contains coronavirus safety tips from HappyBear aimed at kids — concluding with a story about Mr. Happy and Miss Grimm.

drowland@dispatch.com

@darreldrowland

frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen>