Absentee Ballot Request Forms From Outside Groups Can Be Confusing

Perhaps you’ve received an unsolicited absentee ballot application form in the mail.

It could be legitimate. But it could be from an unfamiliar group, and filling it out incorrectly could lead to errors that could delay getting your real ballot on time.

Wooster-area resident Marilynn Rowdybush recently got an absentee ballot request form from a group in Washington, D.C., called Center for Voter Information.

“It looked like it was legitimate but when I went to fill it out, it didn’t fit into the envelope and it just struck me as being a little strange," Rowdybush said.

So she took it to the Wayne County Board of Elections and found it was a legitimate ballot request form, but that she and others had omitted important information that could cause delays in receiving the actual ballots.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the state will mail out its own, official ballot request forms around Labor Day. But unlike some of the ballot request forms being circulated by outside groups, the one from the state won't come with a pre-paid return envelope.

LaRose, the state’s top elections official, is hoping to get the Ohio Controlling Board to allow him to pay for postage on the actual ballots from a fund in his office usually designated for a different purpose.

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