Absentee Voting Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Must an absentee ballot request include a statement that the requestor is a qualified elector?
  
  
• Q: Who is eligible to have his/her absentee ballot faxed to him/her?
  
  
• Q: Does the Revised Code prevent a Board of Elections from sending an absentee ballot to a voter's place of business, a hotel, or other address different from their home address?
  
  
• Q: When a person gives a Board of Elections an Application for Absent Voter's Ballot, we contact them for additional information if it is needed. However, what about voters who mail or drop off their ballots at the board office, and the Identification Envelope is incomplete? For instance, the date of birth is missing or they leave off their ID number. Are we allowed to "follow up" to get that information or is their vote "cast" and we do not follow up?
  
  
• Q: What if someone brings a Board of Elections a "stack" of voted Absentee Ballots? Is the BOE permitted to count these ballots?
  
  
• Q: In the past we have permitted a spouse and/or immediate family member of an absentee voter to pick up his/her absentee ballot at our office. Is this still allowed?
  
  
• Q: May non-Board of Elections employees, or “outside” groups, enter nursing home facilities to solicit absentee voter applications from patients/residents?

• Q: For a partisan primary, such as March 2008, if no party affiliation is indicated on the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), does the board send the elector an "Issues Only"ballot?
• Q: Are Federal Post Card Applications ("FPCA") good for only a 2-year period?
• Q: What are the size and weight requirements for the envelopes sent along with the armed service absent voter's ballots? Don't they apply to punch card ballots? Because we no longer use punch cards, do we still have to follow these requirements?

Absentee Voting FAQs

Q: Must an absentee ballot request include a statement that the requestor is a qualified elector?

A: Yes, absolutely. Please see page 7 of Directive 2007-06 and R.C. 3509.03. In addition, R.C.3509.04(A), requires BOEs to contact electors who submit deficient absentee applications and inform the elector what they must do to remedy the request. Typically, that involves sending out a new absentee request (SOS Form No. 11-A) so that the elector may properly complete and sign an application. However, a BOE cannot require an elector to use SOS Form No. 11-A;therefore, any document containing the required elements under R.C. 3509.03 is sufficient. (as of 11/07/07)

Q: Who is eligible to have his/her absentee ballot faxed to him/her?

A: All UOCAVA voters, such as armed service members, overseas voters and their spouses and dependents who reside outside the state are eligible to vote an absentee voter's ballot under R.C. 3511, and only these voters may have their absent voter's ballot faxed or emailed to them to them. For more information, please see R.C. 3511

Q: Does the Revised Code prevent a Board of Elections from sending an absentee ballot to a voter's place of business, a hotel, or other address different from their home address?

A: No, the law is silent in that regard. Rather, the law authorizes a BOE to mail absentee ballots to the voter at the address provided by the voter; see R.C. 3509.03(I) ("If the elector desires ballots to be mailed to the elector, the address to which those ballots shall be mailed."). (as of11/07/07)

Q: When a person gives a Board of Elections an Application for Absent Voter's Ballot, we contact them for additional information if it is needed. However, what about voters who mail or drop off their ballots at the board office, and the Identification Envelope is incomplete? For instance, the date of birth is missing or they leave off their ID number. Are we allowed to "follow up" to get that information or is their vote "cast" and we do not follow up?

A: As noted in Directive 2007-06 at Page 9, Section II.C.2., a BOE may reject an absentee ballot if information contained in the statement accompanying that ballot (the ID envelope) is insufficient (see Section II.B. of Directive 2007-06 for what constitutes a complete statement).As such, a BOE is under no obligation to follow up with electors who return absentee ballots with insufficient statements.However, a BOE may follow up if it desires, but should do so according to a policy set by the Board, and if it does, it should NEVER complete the missing information for the elector. Only the elector should physically complete the information because it is the elector, and only the elector, who signs the statement under penalty of election falsification. (as of 8/15/07)

Q: What if someone brings a Board of Elections a "stack" of voted Absentee Ballots? Is the BOE permitted to count these ballots?

A: With regard to electors returning absentee ballots, R.C. 3509.05 provides that an "elector shall mail the identification envelope to the director from whom it was received in the return envelope, postage prepaid, or the elector may personally deliver it to the director, or the spouse of the elector, the father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, grandfather, grandmother,brother, or sister of the whole or half blood, or the son, daughter, adopting parent, adopted child,stepparent, stepchild, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece of the elector may deliver it to the director.The return envelope shall be transmitted to the director in no other manner, except as provided in section 3509.08 of the Revised Code."Thus, if a BOE has knowledge that an absentee ballot returned to the BOE was returned to the BOE by someone other than the elector or one of the relatives mentioned above, the BOE shall not count that ballot. If the BOE does not KNOW, but only suspects that someone other than the elector or one of the relatives mentioned above has returned the ballot in question, the BOE has a duty to investigate - before rejecting the ballot - and should do so according to a policy as set by the Board. Absent knowledge of a violation of 3509.05, a BOE should count the returned ballot. NOTE: some of the relationships noted in the statute would not "be obvious," and so a BOE should be cautious about disenfranchising voters by rejecting validly returned ballots. (as of 8/15/07)

Q: In the past we have permitted a spouse and/or immediate family member of an absentee voter to pick up his/her absentee ballot at our office. Is this still allowed?

A: No. Under Directive 2007-06 (Voter Identification Requirements, Absentee Voting Requirements, Provisional Voting Requirements), an absentee ballot must be given to the voter in person or mailed to the voter. The only exceptions are for disabled voters under R.C.3509.08(A) or voters hospitalized due to a medical emergency under R.C. 3509.08(B)(1). (as of5/30/07)

Q: In the past we have permitted a spouse and/or immediate family member of an absentee voter to drop off his/her completed absentee ballot at our office. Is this still allowed?

A: Yes. Nothing in statute or a directive prohibits a family member from delivering a voter's completed ballot in the sealed identification envelope to the board of elections. (as of 5/30/07)

Q: May non-Board of Elections employees, or “outside” groups, enter nursing home facilities to solicit absentee voter applications from patients/residents?

A: Yes. There is nothing in law prohibiting such a practice. However, there is also nothing requiring facilities to allow that practice, either. (as of 5/30/07)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA)

• Q: For a partisan primary, such as March 2008, if no party affiliation is indicated on the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), does the board send the elector an "Issues Only"ballot?
• Q: Are Federal Post Card Applications ("FPCA") good for only a 2-year period?
• Q: What are the size and weight requirements for the envelopes sent along with the armed service absent voter's ballots? Don't they apply to punch card ballots? Because we no longer use punch cards, do we still have to follow these requirements?

Q: For a partisan primary, such as March 2008, if no party affiliation is indicated on the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), does the board send the elector an "Issues Only"ballot?

A: It depends. If you receive the FPCA in 2008, then you should send the elector absentee ballots for all elections in 2008 in his or her precinct. Because the elector did not indicate a party affiliation, you not would send him or her a party primary ballot, but if there were issues on theballot, you would send the elector an issues only ballot. However, if you received the FPCA inany other year than 2008, such as 2006, and the elector did not indicate party affiliation, you would not send the elector an issues only ballot because the FPCA is only effective for federal elections within the two general federal election cycle.Under UOCAVA, FPCA are only for elections for Federal office. However, Ohio Revised Code 3509.03 provides that: "A voter who will be outside the United States on the day of any election during a calendar year may use a single federal post card application to apply for absent voter's ballots. Those ballots shall be sent to the voter for use at the primary and general elections in that year and any special election . . ." Thus, a FPCA covers all federal elections held in the state through the next 2 regularly scheduled general elections for federal office, and the FPCA includes all elections in the year that the FPCA was received. (as of 5/08/07)

Q: Are Federal Post Card Applications ("FPCA") good for only a 2-year period?

A: No. FPCAs are effective through two regularly scheduled general elections for Federal office.Therefore, they could be good up to four years.The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ("UOCAVA") provides that if a state accepts the FPCA for voter registration and as an absentee ballot application "and the voter requests that the application be considered an application for an absentee ballot for each subsequent election for Federal office held in the State through the next 2 regularly scheduled general elections for Federal office . . . the State shall provide an absentee ballot to the voter for each such subsequent election." 42 USC 1973ff-3(a). Although UOCAVA seems to suggest that it is up to the elector to request an absentee ballot for the next 2 Federal elections, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's official "interpretation" of UOCAVA provides that: "Upon receipt and approval of an FPCA from a UOCAVA citizen, the State shall provide the citizen with ballots for each subsequent election for Federal office in the State through the next two general elections for Federal offices." Thus, this office has historically advised boards to send the absentee ballot for each election for Federal office held in the state through the next 2 scheduled general federal elections.For example, if a county receives an FPCA from a UOCAVA citizen qualified to vote on January 1, 2008, you should provide the citizen with ballots for each election that includes federal offices through the 2010 election cycle. On the other hand, if a county receives an FPCA from a UOCAVA citizen qualified to vote on November 30, 2008, you should provide the citizen with ballots for each election that includes Federal offices through the 2012 election cycle. (as of5/08/07)

Q: What are the size and weight requirements for the envelopes sent along with the armed service absent voter's ballots? Don't they apply to punch card ballots? Because we no longer use punch cards, do we still have to follow these requirements?

A: R.C. 3511.06 provide the size and qualify of the envelopes. That statute provides:The identification envelope provided for in section 3511.05 of the Revised Code shall be a No.10, 24-lb. white official envelope, four and one-eighth inches by nine and one-half inches in size.The return envelope provided for in such section shall be a No. 11, 24-lb. white official envelope, four and one-half inches by ten and three-eighths inches in size.The envelope in which the two envelopes and the armed service absent voter's ballots are mailed to the elector shall be a No. 12, 24-lb. white official envelope, four and three-quarter inches by eleven inches in size, and it shall have two parallel lines, each one quarter of an inch in width, printed across its face, paralleling the top, with an intervening space of one-quarter of an inch between such lines. The top line shall be one and one-quarter inches from the top of the envelope. Between the parallel lines shall be printed: "OFFICIAL ARMED SERVICE ABSENT VOTER'S BALLOTING MATERIAL-VIA AIR MAIL."The appropriate return address of the director of the board of elections shall be printed in the upper left corner on the face of such envelope. Several blank lines shall be printed on the face of such envelope in the lower right portion, below the bottom parallel line, for writing in the name and address of the elector to whom such envelope is mailed. All printing on such envelope shall be in red ink. Even though this statute was last amended in 1981, and was probably intended for punch cards, it is still a valid and enforceable statute. The Secretary of State’s Office can't grant any waiver from statutory requirements. Moreover, because the General Assembly amended several other portions of the chapter on armed service absent voter's ballots in 2005 and 2006,but refused to amend R.C. 3511.06, it may be assumed that the legislature intended that counties continue following these size and quality requirements for the envelopes. (As of7/05/07)