Ohio encourages absentee voting

Any registered voter can vote by absentee ballot.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Election officials expect a record number of Ohioans to vote by absentee ballot for the March 4 presidential primary.

It is the first presidential election under a new law that allows anyone to vote absentee.

Officials expect about 20 percent of registered voters statewide to vote absentee. For example, more than 100,000 absentee requests have already been made in Franklin County. The county has 780,000 registered voters, and is expecting at least a 40 percent turnout — which would be roughly 312,000 voters. That means nearly a third of those expected to vote have already requested an absentee ballot.

The high numbers have affected the strategies of the presidential campaigns, requiring them to target early voters with mailers and television ads.

Here are some questions and answers about absentee voting:

Q. Who can vote absentee?

A. Any eligible voter who wants to cast an absentee ballot may do so. Previously, only voters who met certain qualifications — such as being out of the country on election day — could cast an absentee ballot. But a 2005 law allowed anyone to do so, with the hopes of increasing flexibility for voters and shortening lines on the day of the election.

Q. Are there different ways to vote absentee?

A. Yes. Voters may request a paper ballot through the mail, fill it out, then send it back to their local board of elections. Or they may vote in person at the local board. Absentee voters have the option to use touch-screen voting machines in counties that use them, or they can request a paper ballot that is then fed through a scanning machine.

Q. When must an absentee ballot request be made to receive one?

A. Election officials must receive the absentee application by noon on the Saturday before the election. But officials encourage voters to make their requests much sooner. In general, absentee voting begins 25 days before the presidential primary, and voters can make their absentee request 90 days before the election.

Q. When must absentee ballots be returned to election officials to be counted?

A. They must be received by election officials by the end of voting on election day to be counted. Voting with an absentee ballot in person must be done by the day before the election.

Q. Will I be notified if my absentee ballot is lost in the mail?

A. No. But voters may call their boards of elections to verify that they’ve received their ballot.

Q. When are absentee ballots counted?

A. Election officials can begin preparing the absentee ballots to be counted on the Saturday before the election. They are then counted along with ballots cast on election day and are included in unofficial results. However, absentee ballots coming from overseas have until the 20th day after the presidential primary to be counted.

Q. Are election officials encouraging absentee voting?

A. Yes. More absentee voters means shorter lines and confusion on election day, the logic goes. Some counties, such as Franklin County, have paid to send absentee applications to voters even if they don’t request one and to air television advertisements plugging the absentee option.

Q. Where can I get more information?

A. Contact your county elections board or visit the Ohio Secretary of State’s Web site at: www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/PublicAffairs/VoterInfoGuide.aspx?Section16