County boards of elections from Lake to Lorain say they are inundated with envelopes from voters requesting to vote this November by mail. The reason for the spike: In 2005, the state of Ohio approved a new system where anyone can get an absentee ballot. This November will be the first Presidential election in which Ohioans can vote by mail.
Ohio's most populous county, Cuyahoga, has already topped the 110,000 mark for vote by mail requests. Jane Platten heads the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Jane Platten: This is an option for folks who don't want to face the potential of waiting in a long line to vote.
The Ohio Secretary of State's office also says voter registration is growing, up 4.5 percent statewide since the beginning of this year. Worried that heightened voter interest may cause voting problems, a nonprofit group, The Century Foundation, took a close look at Ohio and other swing states. The report gave Ohio good marks saying election processes are "much improved" from four years ago when the state was a "poster child" for voting problems. Mhari Saito, 90.3.