A poll worker helps guide a voter at the Franklin County early voting center. (Photo by Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal.)

Election Day is one week away and the League of Ohio Women Voters of Ohio recently hosted a webinar that went over Ohio’s post-election procedures to highlight the security of our elections and the safety mechanisms in place when handling ballots and verifying results.

In addition to voting for the president, Ohioans will be casting their ballots for various state and local issues including a hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican Bernie Moreno, Issue 1 and three Ohio Supreme Court races. 

Election Day is Tuesday Nov. 5 and polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. You can find your local polling location here. Ohio early voting began three weeks ago. 

What happens after the polls close? 

Every voting precinct is staffed by a bipartisan group of poll workers. 

“The first thing that they do is they get all their totals from all their machines,” Wood County Board of Elections Director Terry Burton said during the webinar. “They verify their totals between their electronic poll pads and their machine counts, and make sure that everything matches up. Then they verify their paper ballots for anyone that submitted paper ballots or provisional ballots.”

The poll workers load everything up in a car and return it to the board of elections in a bipartisan team, meaning one Democrat and one Republican. 

“Our office goes into its own lockdown, and we are only accessible by the sheriff and the poll workers,” Burton said. 

A bipartisan team uploads the ballot tabulation through a USB flash drive provided by the Ohio Secretary of State, he said. 

The results of the election are unofficial until Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose certifies the election results after they are officially submitted by county boards of elections.

“Election night is not results night, and that’s okay,” said Jessica King, Verified Voting’s senior policy associate. “Election officials have their processes and procedures that they’re going to follow, and again, we need to give them that space and time to do that.”

What is a provisional ballot? 

A provisional ballot is used to record a vote if a voter’s eligibility is questioned. For example, this would happen if a voter didn’t have a photo ID, changed their name or forgot to update their address. A person who casts a provisional ballot on Election Day has until Nov. 9 to cure their ballot. 

So, for instance, if a voter doesn’t have their photo ID and casts a provisional ballot, they must return to their county board of elections with their ID by Nov. 9 in order for their vote to count.

“I try to explain that this is our board of elections safeguard,” said Auglaize County Board of Elections Director Michelle Wilcox. 

What is Ohio’s new voting ID law? 

A law went into effect last year that requires Ohio voters have a photo ID to vote in person. 

A photo ID can be a valid Ohio driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a military ID, an Ohio ID card, an interim ID form issued by the Ohio BMV, an Ohio National Guard ID card or a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card. 

Absentee ballots 

Sixty-five percent of absentee ballots have been returned as of Monday afternoon, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. 

Absentee ballot applications are due to your local board of elections Oct. 29 by 8:30 p.m. and mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 4 and received by Nov. 9.

Absentee ballots are counted and tabulated first on election night. 

“Ohio is really lucky,” King said. “Election officials are able to process vote by mail ballots throughout the cycle. We don’t wait until Election Day to start.”

A common misconception King hears is ballots received or processed after Election Day aren’t counted. 

“That’s absolutely false,” she said. “Provisional ballot envelopes are reviewed to ensure that the required information has been completed to determine if it should even be open and sent for counting. Vote by mail ballots received post election are reviewed to verify that they are postmarked by the day before the election, so that they can be counted.” 

If a provisional ballot can’t be counted or an absentee ballot isn’t postmarked or received by the deadline, those votes won’t be counted. 

“Those ballots don’t even make it out of the envelope,” King said. “There is just no question about those ballots. They are isolated. They are retained, but they don’t even make it into the circle where they could be counted or tabulated.”

Voting machines

The Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners must approve voting equipment.

“Their approval makes it eligible for purchase and implementation in the state,” King said. “So if they do not pass that thorough matrix of requirements, then they don’t even get to be up for grabs in Ohio, they’re not even eligible to be used.”

But the process doesn’t stop there. 

“Once these machines are selected by a county, election officials follow procedures before and after every single election that are used to ensure the security and reliability of the machines,” King said. “Once those machines make it back to the board, they will be inspected. They will be reviewed to make sure that they are in good condition, that nothing questionable happened.”

Early voting hours

October 29: 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

October 30 – November 1: 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.

November 2: 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

November 3: 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.