COLUMBUS –Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has announced that an estimated 257,728 absentee ballots have been requested statewide for the Nov. 7 General Election. This includes 1,003 requests from military and overseas voters whose absentee ballots started going out on Saturday, Sept. 23. Ballots for all other voters started going out on Oct. 11 and a total of 69,223 have been cast by mail and in-person.
Nov. 7 General Election By-the-Numbers
• 7,900,751 Ohioans are registered to vote.
• 257,728 voters have requested an absentee ballot by mail (as of Oct. 20).
Of those, 69,223 have been cast.
• 26,275 voters have requested and cast an absentee ballot in person (as of Oct. 20).
• 1,004 military & overseas voters have requested an absentee ballot (as of Oct. 20).
Of those, 193 have been cast.
In Shelby County, 655 ballots have been requested by mail with 235 cast so far. Two absentee ballots were military/overseas requests. There were 128 voters who requested and cast an absentee ballot in person.
To request an absentee ballot by mail, applications must be received by boards of elections by noon on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017. However, voters are encouraged to submit their request as soon as possible to ensure sufficient time to complete and return their ballot to the board of elections.
Completed absentee ballots must be postmarked by the day before the election and arrive at the board of elections within 10 days after Election Day in order to be counted.
If a voter has not mailed their completed ballot back to their county board of elections more than a week before Election Day, the Secretary of State’s Office recommends voters take their completed ballot to the post office and request it receive a postage cancellation marking, or return it to their county board of elections prior to the close of the polls at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
At this same point in time during absentee voting in 2015, nearly 223,000 absentee ballots had been requested with more than 61,200 ballots having been already cast. In that election voters decided three statewide issues, as well as a number of local issues and races.
For more information on the upcoming November 7 General Election or to download an absentee ballot request form, visit MyOhioVote.com.
