Under Secretary of State Jon Husted's initiative to send absentee ballot applications to nearly 7 million registered voters across Ohio, more than 800,000 people so far have asked for but not yet completed an absentee ballot for the Nov. 6 election.
Anyone who does not return an absentee ballot, deciding instead to vote at the polls, will be required to cast a provisional ballot. That's so officials may verify that they did not vote absentee and also show up at the polls.
By state law, provisional ballots may not be counted until at least Nov. 17. That means that if Ohio's electoral votes would be decisive in the race between President Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the state could keep the nation in suspense for weeks after the election.
In past elections, most Ohioans had to proactively request an absentee ballot. This year, Husted simplified the process by sending an application to registered voters statewide.
An unintended consequence of that could be to increase the number of people who ask for an absentee ballot but do not use it, not realizing that means they must vote provisionally at the polls.
Provisional votes long have been one of the most problematic areas of Ohio elections, primarily because tens of thousands routinely are disqualified by relatively minor missteps by voters or polls workers. Four years ago, nearly 40,000 provisional ballots, roughly one in five, were invalidated for various reasons.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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