Ohio is wrapping up an unprecedented primary day. The state canceled scheduled voting over concerns about the coronavirus hours before polls were to open on March 17, the originally scheduled primary election day. The legislature opted not to schedule another day of full in-person voting. Instead it called on the Secretary of State to implement voting by mail.
The process required voters to request an application to receive a ballot. They had to fill that out and send it in, then a ballot was sent to them. All ballots had to be postmarked by Monday, April 27. They could also be dropped off at local elections boards by 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose says there were more than 1.9 million requests for absentee ballots and 1.5 million had been returned by Tuesday. LaRose said the U.S. Postal Service delivered thousands of ballots Tuesday to boards of elections in Cuyahoga and Hamilton Counties.
Boards of Elections are now counting ballots received before March 17 and all those dropped off in person or mailed in that arrived by today.
The Secretary of State has asked all of the elections boards not to release results before uploading them to the Secretary of State's website. WKSU is following information and will update it as it becomes available.
These links will take you to the Boards of Elections sites for the counties in the WKSU listening area:
- Ashland County
- Ashtabula County
- Carroll County
- Columbiana County
- Coshocton County
- Cuyahoga County
- Erie County
- Geauga County
- Holmes County
- Huron County
- Knox County
- Lake County
- Lorain County
- Mahoning County
- Medina County
- Portage County
- Richland County
- Stark County
- Summit County
- Trumbull County
- Tuscarawas County
- Wayne County
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
