People vote early in record numbers

CELINA - More than 12,000 absentee ballots were mailed to voters in Mercer and Auglaize counties on Tuesday, more than the total number of mail-in absentee ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.

"I think that Mercer County always has a pretty high participation, but I think this (election) is going to be more than any in the past," Mercer County Board of Elections Director Deb Sneddon said.

Early voting in Ohio began on Tuesday. In Mercer County, elections staff mailed out 6,088 absentee ballots, deputy director Kristi Rable said, noting 1,203 ballots were sent out to registered Democrats, 2,819 to registered Republicans, 2,819 to registered voters with no party affiliation and two to registered Libertarians. Mercer County has 29,422 registered voters as of Tuesday.

Ohio voters declare their political party affiliation by the party ballot they request in a partisan primary election, according to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

Also on Tuesday, 341 people cast absentee ballots in person in the courthouse auditorium, which has been turned into an elections nerve center where early in-person voting and absentee ballot are processed.

Looking back to 2016's presidential election, 4,007 - or 18.2% - of the 22,053 ballots cast were absentee ballots by mail, according to Sneddon's information. Adding in the 3,564 absentee ballots cast in person ahead of Election Day, 7,571 - or 34.3% - of the 22,053 participating electors chose to vote via an absentee ballot.

The Auglaize County Board of Elections mailed out 6,122 absentee ballots on Tuesday morning, according to board director Michelle Wilcox. That number alone is the exact same as the total number of absentee and early in-office ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, Wilcox said.

Early in-person voting is expected to be far more popular this year as well. By noon on Tuesday, 120 ballots had already been cast at the board offices at 209 S. Blackhoof St., Wapakoneta. Wilcox expects that by 2 p.m. Nov. 2 - the last day for early and absentee voting - about 10,000 Auglaize voters, or about 30% of registered voters in the county, will have used early or absentee voting methods.

Statewide, 2.15 million absentee ballot applications have been received by county boards of election, including 21,570 requests from military and overseas voters, LaRose said Tuesday in a news release. At the same time during the 2016 election, 1.09 million absentee ballots had been requested.

Ohioans who have already requested an absentee ballot by mail can choose instead to vote early in person at their voting location, according to LaRose.

"If the voter has not returned their mailed absentee ballot, the board of elections must record in its voter registration system that the original ballot is spoiled. In addition, the board must ask the voter to return the spoiled ballot for tracking purposes," LaRose wrote in a directive to election officials.

The original ballot is supposed to be returned to the board and placed into a container designated for spoiled ballots.

"However, a voter does not need to return their original absentee ballot in order to cast a regular in-person absentee ballot," LaRose wrote.

Sneddon also addressed this issue.

"We have the software right here. We can see that they haven't yet cast that ballot," she said. "We just simply suspend the first ballot and reissue a second ballot."

"We have had people do that today, that requested a mail ballot but showed up here today to vote," Rable noted.

However, anyone who casts more than one ballot could be charged with a felony, the two said.

"It wouldn't be counted because when we check it into the system, they've already had a ballot that's been cast," Sneddon said.

Absentee ballots are the first ballots to be tallied on Election Day in Mercer County after the polls close at 7:30 p.m.

"We can actually start scanning those absentees (into the computer) 19 days before (Election Day)," Rable said. "They're just not tabulated (until the polls close on Election Day)."

"All we have to do is hit the button to save results, and it saves it to the flash drive and we take it over to the tabulation machine and hit upload," Sneddon added.

Ohio voters can cast absentee ballots by mail or in person before Election Day without giving a reason. Requests to vote by mail must be in writing and received by the board no later than noon Oct. 31. Applications are available on boards of elections' websites.

Absentee ballots returned by U.S. Mail must be postmarked no later than Nov. 2 and received by boards of elections by Nov. 13 to be counted.

Absentee ballots also can be deposited in each county board of elections' drop box. The Mercer County drop box is located in the circle driveway on the north side of the courthouse. The Auglaize County box is located in the alley on the north side of the county administration building in Wapakoneta.

Voters not wanting to vote in person because of disability or fear of contracting COVID-19 can request their ballots be brought to them in their vehicle by a bipartisan election team, during both early voting and on Election Day.

- Daily Standard reporter Sidney Albert contributed to this report.