CLEVELAND — No excuse early voting was introduced to Ohio following the troubles that arose in the state in the 2004 presidential election between George Bush and John Kerry. Since then it's become an integral part of the election process, offering voters the opportunity to either vote early in person at their local Board of Elections or from the comfort of home with a vote-by-mail ballot.
Every registered voter in Ohio was mailed an application to request a vote by mail by the Ohio Secretary of State. They can also call their local Board of Election and request an application or go to the Secretary of State's voteohio.gov and download one to print out and mail in.
The applications have only five fields that need to be filled out all highlighted in yellow: name and address, date of birth, identification, the election you're requesting a ballot for and your signature and date.
Still, each election season thousands of applications are rejected, very often for either failing to fill out one of these fields or filling in the wrong information.
In Cuyahoga County through Wednesday, Oct. 9, 155,579 applications have been processed, but 8,389 have been returned as invalid.
The number one reason? 3,042 failed to provide their date of birth, and another 574 put down a date that didn't match the voter's registration. It's not that they don't know when they were born; it's just that they often write in the date of the day they're filling it out or the date of the election.
Several years ago the words "Do not write today's date!" were added to the form next to the line, but still, the mistake is made.
1,573 were declared invalid because the person's address didn't match the one the BOE has on file. 789 did not provide ID, which is either the last four of your social or your Ohio driver's license or state ID number.
220 voters so far this cycle filled out the information correctly but then failed to sign the form, and another 118 had signatures that didn't match the voter's registration card on file.
In most cases, the voters are mailed a letter explaining the mistake they made with a new vote-by-mail application to be filled out and mailed in. That's why election officials urge voters to take their time with the ballot application as they will with their ballots when they eventually receive them.
