Election 2022: All Ohio voters expected to get ballot applications for November

Brian Sleeth, left, Warren County Board of Elections director, wheels part of the county's more than 47,000 absentee ballots out the door. Workers on Monday took the ballots to a postal facility to be mailed Tuesday.  In addition to voting absentee beginning Tuesday, registered voters can cast ballots by in-person early voting. Across Ohio, the hours this week through Friday are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Twice as many Ohioans are expected to vote by mail than in 2016 because of the coronavirus pandemic. JIM NOELKER / STAFF

Credit: Jim Noelker

Credit: Jim Noelker

Brian Sleeth, left, Warren County Board of Elections director, wheels part of the county's more than 47,000 absentee ballots out the door. Workers on Monday took the ballots to a postal facility to be mailed Tuesday. In addition to voting absentee beginning Tuesday, registered voters can cast ballots by in-person early voting. Across Ohio, the hours this week through Friday are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Twice as many Ohioans are expected to vote by mail than in 2016 because of the coronavirus pandemic. JIM NOELKER / STAFF

As in 2020, all Ohioans who are registered to vote should receive an absentee ballot application for the Nov. 8 general election by mail from the Ohio Secretary of State.

Those are not the actual ballots – just application forms to receive a ballot. People who want to vote absentee will need to fill out the application and mail it back to their local county board of elections. In 2020, those ballot applications were mailed to registered voters around Labor Day.

On May 9 the Oho Controlling Board, which handles adjustments to the state budget, approved a request from Secretary of State Frank LaRose to allocate $3 million for printing and sending out ballot applications. But “supply chain issues” delayed that past the June 30 end of the state’s fiscal year.

So on July 11 the controlling board agreed to reallocate that $3 million into the current fiscal year’s budget. That money doesn’t include funding for return postage, according to Rob Nichols, spokesman for LaRose’s office.

A partisan primary for state House and Senate seats will be held Aug. 2, but the general election is scheduled for Nov. 8. On the November ballot will be races for all statewide offices, all 99 state House and one-third of the 33 state Senate seats, all 15 U.S. House seats and one U.S. Senate seat, plus some local elections.

About two-thirds of Ohio’s 11.8 million people are registered to vote. People can also send in written applications for absentee ballots, but they require extensive information.

Information on absentee ballots, voting schedules, local boards of elections and more issues is available at www.ohiosos.gov.

Candidate names and issue items for the Nov. 8 ballot must be certified Aug. 30, according to the state’s election calendar. Ballots to active-duty military and overseas voters will be sent out Sept. 23.

The registration deadline to vote in the Nov. 8 election is Oct. 11. Regular absentee ballots can be sent out starting Oct. 12, the same day as early in-person voting begins.

Returned applications for absentee ballots must be received by noon Nov. 5 by boards of election. Absentee ballots sent back by some other method than U.S. Mail must be returned by the time polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.

Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by Nov. 7 and arrive at boards of election no later than Nov. 18 to be counted.


Voting dates and times for August election

Early voting this week is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays

Week four (Monday, July 25 to Monday, Aug. 1):

- 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, July 25 to Friday, July 29

- 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 30

- 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 31

- 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 1.

Election Day, Aug. 2: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Vote by mail: Applications for absentee ballots to be mailed for Aug. 2 election must be received by noon July 30 at your local board of elections. Though this is the deadline set in law, election officials warn that waiting until this deadline may make it hard to vote by mail because of delivery times.

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