What happens when you add a historic presidential race, a neck-in-neck race that could determine the future balance of the U.S. Senate, three Ohio Supreme Court races that could shift the focus of that court significantly, and a proposed constitutional change to remove politicians from the redistricting process? High voter turnout is the answer so far.
More than 2.5 million voters have already cast early ballots. And Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said this election could set a record as the highest number of voters in the state’s history.
“I think we could be on track to beat the all time record if there’s a big turnout on Election Day,” LaRose said. “5.8 (million) was that turnout record in 2020 and that’s great news.”
Long lines have been reported at many sites, especially in the two weekends of early voting, as each county only has one site and 61% of early ballots were cast in person. More Republican-affiliated voters cast ballots early than Democratic voters, though the overwhelming number are unaffiliated. That number means 30% of Ohio’s 8.1 million registered voters have already voted. The percentage record was set in 1992 with 77% turnout, or 5,043,094 votes.
LaRose said he has specific teams aimed at finding and dispelling incorrect information, and legal teams to deal with illegal activities. And he said they deal with the ordinary problems that pop up every general election.
“Anywhere from 200 to 300 different issues can pop up – a power outage, a traffic jam, maybe a piece of equipment that’s not functioning correctly or a poll worker that’s not following their training. When these things pop up, we can quickly triage those, we can react to them and we can solve that problem," LaRose said.
What to expect on Election Day
Comments from some local sheriffs have raised concerns for some voters. Clark County Sheriff’s
Lt. John Rogers took to Facebook, posting he wanted proof of who someone was voting for before helping them and that he would not help Democrats. And a few weeks ago, the Portage County Board of Elections announced it would not use the sheriff's department in its security plan after Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski suggested on Facebook that residents should mark down addresses with signs for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
When asked if he had concerns about whether voters would be protected in areas where law enforcement officials have made intimidating comments, LaRose said he thinks they will honor their duty to provide security for voters on Election Day.
“That’s their responsibility and I have every confidence that they will do that. God forbid that didn’t happen. Then we would work with other law enforcement entities and if need be with the state patrol and the state partners to make sure that that law is properly enforced in that polling location or that board of elections,” LaRose said. “I don’t anticipate that that’s going to happen.”
LaRose said there haven't been many problems with voters having improper identification. He said naturalized citizens should have a license or ID that reflects their citizenship or bring their citizenship papers with them to vote. There have been lawsuits over this policy but LaRose has won. Naturalized citizens who go to the polls without this identification will be offered a provisional ballot that they can resolve with proper ID before Saturday, Nov. 9.
What to wear to the polls
If you are thinking of wearing a shirt or hat with your favorite candidate's name on it, think again. LaRose said anyone who shows up with clothing that bears a candidate's name or clothing that urges voters to pass or reject a ballot issue will be asked to remove the offending garment. It's part of a directive LaRose recently handed down to local boards of elections. But if a voter wears such an item and refuses to remove it, that voter would be allowed to cast a ballot and his/her name will be handed to a BOE official for potential followup later.
The Election Day forecast calls for warm weather. Groups assisting voters might be tempted to hand out cold water or baked goods to someone standing in line. LaRose noted the law states voters cannot be offered items in exchange for their vote for or against a candidate or issue, but it would be ok to offer a bottle water to voters with no strings attached because that is “an act of human kindness”.
What to expect on Election Night
Once polls close at 7:30pm, LaRose said absentee ballots will be immediately counted.
“We’ve pre-processed those absentee ballots as they’ve came in. What does that mean? That means a bipartisan team has cut open the envelope. They’ve looked at the security envelope to identify the first name, middle name, last name, date of birth, address, last four of the social, state driver’s license number, match the signatures,” LaRose said. “These bipartisan teams go through that process to prove that that voter is in fact the person who they say they are. Then they sever the identity from the ballot.”
LaRose said the ballots will be loaded into machines and counted. But final results in the presidential race could be up in the air, as votes from other states are counted differently than Ohio.
Certifying the vote
LaRose said he thinks Ohioans will know the outcome of most of the races before they go to bed.
The preliminary vote will be posted before his office staff leaves. As mail-in ballots come in, that number will change. And after the initial vote, paper ballots themselves will be recounted to make sure they match the ones tabulated by computers on Election Night.
About three weeks after the election, LaRose said local boards of elections will certify the results, send them to his office and he will release those certified totals. There has been a lot of talk about situations in other states where county election officials have failed to certify elections. LaRose said he doesn't expect that to happen in Ohio. But if it did, he said the state has options.
“We could secure a judge’s order, telling them they must do that, that there would be penalties if they don’t, that they could be held in contempt," LaRose said.
LaRose said if there are any ties in local races, a coin flip will be used to determine the winner, which has happened before.
Polls open at 6:30am.
