If You’re Voting Absentee Follow all the Instructions
WCMH-TV is reporting today in Columbus that there are in fact potentially hundreds of absentee ballots which will not be counted due to voters not properly placing completed ballots in their inner envelopes and signing them.
If you are voting absentee, follow the instructions. You’re vote will not be counted if it’s not signed and sealed in the inner envelope.
Read the envelope and you’ll see a disclaimer that ballots without the required information will not be counted. But that hasn’t stopped hundreds of voters from making the same mistake.
In the 2008 primary election, 657 voters returned their ballot without the identification envelope. 372 voters didn’t sign the identification envelope and 368 voters didn’t write down their date of birth
If you did not include the identification envelope when mailing your absentee ballot, you cannot fix the mistake. That’s why it is so important to read the instructions, officials said.
Are Absentee Ballots and Early Voters’ Ballots Being Discarded in Franklin County?
A reliable source in the Central Ohio mainstream media told me earlier today that their outlet was looking into what may be “hundreds of mailed in ballots” which could be disregarded by the Franklin County, Ohio County Board of Elections.
For those of you outside Ohio, Franklin County is the home of Columbus, Ohio’s capital city.
The problem may stem from the fact that Ohio absentee ballots contain two envelopes. The voter fills out the ballot and is supposed to seal the ballot in an envelope which they then sign and date. That envelope then goes into the postage envelope.
My source tells me that the Board of Elections has received “hundreds” of ballots which were simply placed in the postage envelope without being sealed in the inner envelope with signature and date. This reporter said that election officials deem those ballots “invalid.”
I asked if voters would be made aware so that they could re-cast their vote. My source said this is not allowed. I asked if there were more Dems or Republicans voting early. The answer was Dems by a mile.
If this is true, and you are absentee/early voting, follow every instruction contained in that absentee voter package.
Franklin County Board of Elections – Registering to Vote Fast and Easy
Today, October 6, Last Day to Register to Vote in Ohio!
So, get out there and register. I was registered in Licking County and moved to Bexley two or three months ago. I changed my voter registration today at the Franklin County Board of Elections, downtown Columbus on E. Broad. In and out in ten minutes. The people were friendly. There was parking in a lot on the east side of the building.
In Franklin County one can still register until 9 p.m. at the Board of Elections.