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Ohio election officials preparing for voting, ballot counting

Monday is the last day of early in-person voting at the Franklin County Board of Elections. Polling locations will be open on Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Election Day already looks a little different this year with so many people voting early and concerns rising because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Presidential elections are always stressful for everybody, voters, election officials, candidates, it’s very common. Tensions run high and there's a lot of moving parts,” said Aaron Ockerman, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials.

If someone has to quarantine during the next couple of days and has not voted yet, he said people are still allowed to vote.

One option is by absentee ballot.

“If you already requested an absentee ballot to mail, fill it out, make sure it’s postmarked by Monday, Nov. 2 and as long as we receive it 10 days after the election, we’ll count it,” Ockerman said.

If an absentee ballot was not requested, voters can go to the Franklin County Board of Elections on Monday, call ahead and vote curbside.

Ockerman said people can also vote curbside at their polling locations on Tuesday.

If voters choose to vote in-person Monday or Tuesday, usually he would recommend avoiding peak hours which are right when they open, during the lunch hour or after work.

“One thing we’ve noticed that’s interesting this year at the early voting sites -I think everyone is working from home, there’s no peak times. It’s just steady all day long,” Ockerman said.

Whether voters are voting for a president or a local levy, he said to remember the results that come out on election night are unofficial.

Ockerman said the results seen that night will give them a good idea of where Ohio stands.

“We have additional work to do, additional ballots to count, we’ll see absentee ballots up until 10 days after the election, we will count provisional ballots,” he explained.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a directive earlier this year saying counties have until Nov. 18 to finish their official canvas of the ballots.

Boards of elections can begin processing absentee ballots at 7:31 p.m. on Nov. 3. 

As far as knowing that each vote is counted accurately, Ockerman said absentee ballots can be tracked.

For provisional ballots on election day, there’s a phone number Ockerman said people can call to make sure their vote is counted.  That number will be given out when a provisional ballot is cast.

For-in person voting, Ockerman said voters will see their votes going into the machine.

In Ohio, Ockerman said, after all votes are added up, officials do a post-election audit.

“We go back and we compare the paper results to the computer, if you voted on the computer, if you voted on paper we’ll pull out ballots and match them up against the results to make sure they’re accurate,” Ockerman said.

The Franklin County Board of Elections public information officer, Aaron Sellers, said through Saturday, they’ve had more than 108,000 in-person voters.

Back in 2016, Sellers said they had a total of about 83,000.

Monday is the last day of early in-person voting at the Franklin County Board of Elections which is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Polling locations will be open on Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

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