Still waiting on your absentee ballot for the Nov. 7 election? Here are your options

Doug Livingston, Akron Beacon Journal
Updated ·3 min read
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Voters wait to cast their ballot in August at the Summit County Board of Elections Early Voting Center in Akron.
Voters wait to cast their ballot in August at the Summit County Board of Elections Early Voting Center in Akron.

A Summit County voter and his wife waited two weeks for their absentee ballot before deciding the United States Post Office was cutting it too close for comfort.

The couple, who shared their experience with a reporter in an email, mailed out their absentee ballot application two weeks ago. But the ballot never arrived. So, they went Friday to the Early Voting Center on Grant Street and cast a new absentee ballot — eliminating any doubt that their vote would be timely and count in the fast-approaching election.

Of the 43,233 Summit County voters who've requested absentee ballots, 5,474 have not yet cast them. Some may have filled out and mailed in their ballots Sunday or turned them in directly to the election board office. Nearly 5,000 of these outstanding ballots were requested by Oct. 27, the date that the Summit County voter and his wife mailed in their applications.

Many of the 5,474 outstanding ballots will be returned. More than 1,500 absentee ballots arrived by mail or were dropped off at the board of elections on or after the Monday before the August special election this year. By the end of that election, 450 requested absentee ballots remained outstanding.

Some people change their minds about voting by mail and, instead, show up in person on Election Day. Others just don't vote after requesting an absentee ballot.

Summit County Election Day Guide: News, information on your ballot; Ohio Issues 1 and 2

Occasionally, though, the ballots get lost in the mail. They never arrive or show up after the Monday before the election, which is the last day an absentee ballot can be postmarked and still count.

"It definitely happens, more than we'd like," said Pete Zeigler, deputy director for the Summit County Board of Elections.

Zeigler said his staff receive "occasional" concerns from voters still waiting on their absentee ballots just days before the Nov. 7 election. Election officials pass these concerns along to the United States Post Office.

"We do reach out, and the Secretary of State's office, as well, reaches out because this is the kind of thing that we get some complaints about every election. It makes sense if you think of the of the sheer volume of ballots [postal workers] deal with," Zeigler said. "And that's a human process."

What to do if you haven't received an absentee ballot

Early vote centers in each of Ohio's 88 counties are now closed. If you didn't receive, mail in or drop off your the absentee ballot by Monday, the only remaining options at this point are to:

  • Hand deliver your completed ballot to the board office at at 470 Grant St., where there's a drive-up drop box, by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.

  • Vote in person at a designated polling location between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. The election system knows which voters requested absentee ballots. These voters will have to cast a provisional ballot, which is counted once election workers verify that the absentee ballots they may or may not have received never made it back to the board of elections.

Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.con or 330-996-3792.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: My absentee ballot hasn't arrived. What can I do to vote by Nov. 7?