COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio is about to hold its first statewide election since state legislators passed a slew of election law changes.
One of the less-publicized changes already is causing problems in Cuyahoga County.
Last week, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections rejected roughly 30 absentee-ballot applications submitted by voters who printed off a form published in the Cleveland Jewish News, a newspaper that focuses on the Cleveland Jewish community.
The Cleveland Jewish News, as well as a sister publication in Columbus, both published a blank absentee ballot application form while urging their readers to vote in the Aug. 8 election. Lawmakers set the rare statewide August election to ask voters to approve State Issue 1, which would make it harder to amend the state constitution.
But the absentee ballot form was out of date, leading to the rejection from county elections officials, due to a new law Republican state lawmakers passed last December. The change tightened the rules for absentee ballot application forms, requiring a new state-mandated form, leaving the form the CJN published out of date. In an email, Bob Jacob, CJN’s editor, said the publication of the outdated form was inadvertent, and said he had found it on Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s website.
Note: This story was updated on Sunday, July 9, to incorporate comments from Bob Jacob
In general, voters in Ohio in order to vote by mail must first fill out a paper application and submit it to their county board of elections. Their elections board then will mail them a blank ballot.
Under the new law, voters must fill out a uniform, state-mandated form when requesting an absentee ballot. The law change was contained in House Bill 458, which also implemented a stricter form of photo ID requirements for voters, among other voting changes.
Previously, Ohio’s laws didn’t specify a particular form for absentee ballot applications, as long as the application contained required information, including: the voter’s name, date of birth, address where they’re registered to vote, signature and personal identifying number, most often the last four digits of a social security number or driver’s license number.
This led some officials to quip that voters could even write the information on a napkin, which the state hypothetically would accept as long as it had the correct information. The lack of standard occasionally caused problems though, such as when third-party groups would provide absentee ballot applications that lacked one of the required fields.
Under the new law, the form must be a specific one designed by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office. Local boards of election also can design their own forms, although they must be approved by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, according to written guidance from LaRose’s office.
County elections officials will mail absentee ballots for the Aug. 8 special election on Tuesday, July 11. Voter registration for the election closes the previous day.
