



Ohio’s official primary Election Day has passed, but voters who didn’t get a chance to go to the polls on March 17 because of the coronavirus outbreak still may cast a ballot.

The Ohio General Assembly approved a plan Wednesday to eliminate most in-person voting for the primary and to extend absentee voting until April 28, after Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration closed the polls hours before they were set to open last week.

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The late-night decision prompted a directive from Secretary of State Frank LaRose to boards of elections telling them to extend absentee balloting and prepare for in-person voting on June 2. But the legislature overruled that directive.

Now, after a week of lawsuits, debate about in-person voting during a global pandemic, and questions about how quickly a vote-by-mail system could be pulled off, voters have some clarity about how to cast their primary ballots.

So how am I supposed to vote?

Ohio already allowed no-excuse absentee voting in the month before its elections. That means you may request that a paper ballot be mailed to you, fill it out and send it back.

The "new" primary effectively will be an extension of that system, with limited options to vote in person. Voters with disabilities, such as visual impairment, and those who are unable to receive mail may cast ballots in person at their county voting center — typically the board of elections — on April 28.

OK, so my ballot will just show up in the mail, and I send it back?

Not exactly. Elections officials say that printing ballots for 7.8 million voters without some information from the voter is impossible during a primary election because the voter needs to specify one of the political parties’ ballots, or an issues-only ballot.

So you’ll need to request the ballot first, and you can do that in a couple of ways.

The fastest is to go to the secretary of state’s website, print the request, put a stamp on the envelope, and mail it to your local board of elections. If you can’t access the application online or don’t have a computer, you also may call your county board of elections to ask that a ballot request be mailed to you.

Be careful, though. If you fill out the form incorrectly, the board of elections could reject it, and it would take time to correct the problem. One common mistake is writing the current date where your birth date is supposed to go.

While the official Election Day was March 17 and the election will be finalized on April 28, Keeling said the secretary of state’s office would tell boards of elections to accept any date on the absentee request as long as the voter asked for a primary ballot"

If your computer is out of ink, boards of elections also should accept a piece of paper with the application information written on it. The paper must include all the information and be signed, said Jon Keeling, LaRose’s spokesman.

The deadline to request a ballot is noon on April 25 for most voters. Those who are unable to apply by that deadline because of an unforeseeable hospitalization may request a ballot by 3 p.m. on April 28.

That seems like a lot of work. I’m going to have to search my junk drawer for a stamp. Why doesn’t the state just send everyone the ballot request and pay for postage?

That’s what LaRose and voting rights advocates wanted. They proposed that the state mail every registered voter a postage-paid request for an absentee ballot. But the legislature disagreed.

Instead, the state is going to send postcards to registered voters instructing them how to request a ballot. The General Assembly set aside $7 million for LaRose’s office to reimburse local boards of elections to handle the expanded vote-by-mail system.

Fine. So I mailed my absentee-ballot request to the board of elections. Now what?

You wait. Your request has to travel through the Postal Service to the board of elections. Elections workers then must process your request, print a ballot and mail it back to you. This can take several days.

Waiting sure seems to be the name of the game in this pandemic. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?

You can do research. You can type in your address at Dispatch.com/votersguide, and it will generate a ballot for you with information on all candidates in contested central Ohio races, and on ballot issues. The League of Women Voters of Ohio also has a voter guide, at Vote411.org. That way, you will be ready to fill out your ballot when it arrives.

Great. But when my ballot arrives, am I going to have to dig out the stamps again?

Not this time. While absentee-ballot requests will require you to affix postage, the ballots themselves should arrive accompanied by a postage-paid envelope. Fill out the ballot and drop it in the mail, or take it to a drop box at your county board of elections.

I’m really busy these days staring out the window thinking about all the things I can’t do and all the places I can’t go because of the coronavirus. I can just deal with this whenever I get around to it, right?

You might want to start this process sooner rather than later. Ballot requests must be made by noon April 25, and ballots have to be postmarked by April 27. The process requires multiple mailings. Voting rights advocates are recommending that voters not wait for the state’s postcards to arrive and instead start the process of requesting a ballot immediately.

LaRose’s office estimates that postcards could arrive in mailboxes in the second week of April. The Postal Service estimates that it could take two to five days for absentee ballots to be delivered in the mail, according to the secretary of state’s website. That could push voters close to the deadline to submit their ballots.

You can track your absentee ballot online at VoteOhio.gov.

Why do we need to turn this around so quickly?

The April 28 deadline came out of the state legislature, with both parties offering it in separate proposals. But it’s much earlier than voter advocates and LaRose had suggested. Voting rights organizations told legislators that they should complete the election in mid-May. LaRose said it wasn’t practical to finish before June 2.

LaRose said he will follow the law as the legislature wrote it, but neither he nor the voting rights advocates are particularly happy with the plan.

"The proposal that Governor DeWine, Lt. Governor (Jon) Husted and I laid out was preferable, and unlike the plan enacted today, our proposal would have concluded the election by putting a ballot request directly in the hands of every voter along with a postage-paid return envelope.

"Though I advocated for a different plan, the legislature has spoken, and I will uphold my oath of office by doing everything in my power over the next 34 days to ensure that every Ohio voter has the opportunity to safely make their voice heard," LaRose said in a prepared statement.

Voter advocates had sharper criticism for the legislature’s plan, saying it violates federal voter-registration law and disenfranchises voters.

"The exact wrong answer is to do a chintzy, half-baked, rushed vote-by-mail process because it means people are not going to get to participate, and that’s just wrong," said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

Oh, yeah, I thought this was supposed to be wrapped up on June 2. What happened to that plan?

After Ohio Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton ordered polls to remain closed hours before they were scheduled to open on March 17, LaRose told county boards of elections to begin preparing to complete the election with in-person voting on June 2.

But that date immediately came into question. The Ohio Democratic Party asked the Ohio Supreme Court to move the date earlier, and legislators pointed out that they have sole authority over setting the election date.

In the end, the legislature superseded LaRose’s directive and set the earlier date for completion of the election. Many people think that will end the Supreme Court challenge, although other lawsuits are always a possibility.

What about people who are not registered to vote yet? Is there still time for them to do that first?

Not for the primary election. The legislation allows ballots to be cast only by voters who were registered by Feb. 18, the registration deadline for the original primary Election Day.

I just remembered that I actually already voted; I went to the early-voting center in my county and cast a ballot before the originally scheduled Election Day. And my buddy voted absentee already, too. Do we need to vote again, or will our votes count?

No, you don’t need to vote again. Yes, your votes still will count. Any ballot cast from the start of early voting until April 28 is to be counted. Mailed ballots must be postmarked by April 27 and arrive at the board of elections by May 8.

My school district/park/favorite presidential candidate is hanging in limbo waiting for Ohio voters to make decisions. When will we have final results?

For counting purposes, April 28 will be treated like Election Day. Polls close at 7:30 p.m., and the counting can start thereafter. Local boards of elections may process and scan ballots that arrive before then, but the law prohibits counting them in advance.

Full results won’t crystallize until after May 8, though, because boards of elections must accept ballots that are postmarked by April 27 and arrive by May 8.

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan