This is the first Ohio election in which mail-in absentee ballots must be returned by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Voting rights advocates say they are hearing from voters who are concerned about their mail-in ballots arriving in time.
Cincinnati-area voter Terry Susskind said she requested a mail-in ballot and received it on April 14. She called the board of elections on April 29 to check on it.
“The ballot had not yet arrived. They were very helpful," she said. "They said they would send me another ballot which did arrive within two days which we filled out and dropped off."
Susskind said they returned that second ballot to the board of elections office. That's exactly what Steve David with All Voting is Local said Susskind should have done in this situation. But he said she isn't the only one having problems with mail-in ballots in this primary election.
“We have heard from several voters who requested absentee ballots several weeks ago and were waiting a long time or had to follow up with boards of elections to get those delivered to their homes," David said.
David said anyone with an absentee ballot at this point should hand-deliver it to their county board of elections or vote a provisional ballot at their precinct.
But David and Susskind said they feel Senate Bill 293, which eliminated a grace period for ballots that didn't get returned by the end of Election Day, could disenfranchise some voters.
"We see that these additional restrictions to vote-by-mail are showing up. They are causing anxiety in voters," David said.
Susskind said what happened to her would be a bigger problem for her college-aged granddaughter who wouldn't have the ability to check on her ballot and rectify it locally.
"The post office is having an oversized influence on the election," she said.
David agrees.
"We should be investing in the vote-by-mail systems to make sure it is able to function as smoothly and efficiently as possible," David said. And until that happens, he said a grace period is a good way to protect mail-in voters.
There is a page on the secretary of state's website that voters can use to find the link to track mail-in-ballots through their county board of elections. But David said that's not enough.
"It shouldn't be on these individual voters to be following up with the boards of elections to make sure that their ballot is arriving," David said.
