County elections officials called the incident “very disheartening,” especially when they asked post office officials if there were any ballots not yet delivered. County elections officials said they were told all ballots mailed by April 27 were delivered.
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“That clearly didn’t happen,” said Butler County Board of Elections Director Diane Noonan after the elections office received the 318 ballots on Monday, May 11. “We are deeply disappointed by the failure of the postal service to deliver these properly cast ballots prior to the May 8 deadline.”
Ohio law allows boards of elections to count late-arriving ballots postmarked the day before Election Day — which was April 27 this primary cycle — and received within 10 days. The elections office received 338 mailed ballots by May 8, which will be included in the official run of the election on Tuesday.
Ohio Secretary of State spokeswoman Maggie Sheehan said as far as her office knows, this only happened in Butler County. She also said Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote a letter to USPS Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman “calling for an investigation.”
This ballot issue comes on the heels of an election cycle never before seen. Because of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, the state declared a public health emergency, thus postponing the March 17 presidential primary. It was eventually set for April 28 by the state legislature — though LaRose and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine wanted it pushed to June.
All in-person voting was canceled with very limited exceptions for the disabled and homeless. It was later announced those who requested but didn’t receive a ballot by April 28 could vote a provisional ballot at their board of elections by 7:30 p.m. Election Day.
Directives to boards of elections as to guidelines for the November election have not yet been issued by the Secretary of State, but Noonan said Butler County has already been working on November plans. The board will incorporate any Secretary of State directives, she said.
“We can’t wait until we later to prepare,” she said, but added, “As soon as Ohio has a concrete plan, the better every board of elections in the state will be.”
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LaRose is pushing four changes, but needs legislative action. They are:
• allow voters to request vote-by-mail ballots online, something LaRose proposed five years ago in the Ohio Senate;
• mail postage-paid absentee ballot request forms and include postage-paid return envelopes for ballots, paid with already-allocated federal funds;
• make the vote-by-mail ballot request deadline a week before the election as opposed to the Saturday prior; and
• release Ohio’s election-related federal funds for staffing and back-end processing equipment.
As for the 318 ballots delivered late by the U.S. Postal Service, they will not be open, Noonan said.
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