Voter says ‘proof’ not in the voting
By Kevin Risner, krisner@advertiser-tribune.comAbsentee voting got off to a slow and perhaps rocky start in Seneca County last week. One voting option may not have been made known to all interested voters during the first three days of the absentee voting period.
When official ballots were not available for residents to vote until about 2:30 p.m. Thursday - nearly three days after the absentee voting period began - another option was suppose to be available to individuals who appeared at the county board of elections office in Tiffin. Voters should have been told they could vote using a "proof" ballot, which is a copy of the official ballot. When official ballots arrived, votes recorded on the proof ballots would be transferred by elections workers to official ballots to be counted later.
Not every voter got the message the option was available.
"They didn't make a single mention of that," county resident Jim Donaldson said this week. "We were there three days. We were there Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday."
Donaldson said he and his wife, Beth Donaldson, appeared at the board of elections office between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. each of the first three days of the legal absentee voting period. Donaldson said workers in the office did not tell him and his wife they could vote using a proof ballot. He said he and his wife would have chosen that method if they knew they could do so.
Donaldson and his wife eventually returned Monday to vote.
Board of Elections Director Janet Leahy said she believed office workers were telling prospective voters the proof ballot option was available as one of three options - to request an absentee ballot to be sent to the voter in the mail when the official ballots arrived, to return a later day when official ballots were available, or to vote using a proof ballot.
Leahy said elections workers may not have mentioned the proof ballot option if they sensed a voter was satisfied to return on a later day or to receive an absentee ballot in the mail.
Leahy said proof ballots were used during the primary elections when some counties ran out of ballots.
At that time, boards of elections were instructed by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to allow voters to vote using proof ballots, with votes to be transferred to official ballots when they were available. Proof ballots were not needed in Seneca County during the primary election.
A Seneca County resident evidently called Brunner's office last week when official ballots were not yet available Tuesday or Wednesday. Brunner's office called the Seneca County Board of Elections office sometime Wednesday to remind the office voters should have the proof ballot option for absentee voting. Leahy said she could not recall what time of day her office received the call from Brunner's office.
"If they came in before then, they may not have been given that (option)," Leahy said.
Donaldson said he watched as the official ballots were carried into the board of elections office Wednesday afternoon, between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. He said he was told tests still were required before ballots would be available to voters. When he returned Thursday at about the same time, official ballots still were not available for voters.
"Since we had come three times up to that point we decided not to return on Friday, but we did come back on Monday," Donaldson said. "When we did they said the ballots were available late in the afternoon on Thursday, which means most of the day it wasn't available.
"We weren't told about the proof ballots, despite what Janet Leahy said (in a newspaper report published Tuesday), and the ballots were not available until late Thursday in the afternoon."
Donaldson said Ohio might need to require companies like Elections Systems and Software (ESS) and ballot printers to work over weekends to make sure ballots are available when absentee voting should begin. Leahy said she did not know about ESS, but said the printer has worked over weekends.
Local attorney Dean Henry met with the local board of elections Monday. Henry advocated for the purchase of on-demand balloting machines. The on-demand balloting machines would allow board of elections workers to print official ballots even before ballots from a contracted printer are available. Henry also advocated exerting more pressure on contractors to complete printing work in advance of the absentee voting period.
Meanwhile, Seneca County is not the only county which has dealt with receiving official ballots late. Leahy said she was told by state elections workers three counties still were waiting for official ballots Monday.
