Early voting for a partial primary on May 3 begins Tuesday, but the legal battle over redistricting in Ohio is already dampening turnout.
So far, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has received and processed 5,500 vote-by-mail applications. Typically, at this point in the election cycle, there’s about five times more than that, according to Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Tony Perlatti.
“I think because of a lot of the confusion with individuals not knowing what was going to be on the ballot, when in fact the election was going to be, some people have paused in requesting their vote-by-mail application,” Perlatti said.
Additionally, the voter information guide usually triggers a lot of vote-by-mail activity. But it was not sent this time because of the uncertainty around who would be on the ballot and when the election would be held, according to Perlatti.
He is urging anyone who wants to register to vote for the primary election to head to the board of elections office by the deadline on Monday at 9 p.m.
The Board of Elections opens its doors Tuesday at 8 a.m. for early voting.
For the first few days, Cuyahoga County residents should also expect to cast their vote on a PDF printout of the ballot. Perlatti says live ballots should be available by the end of the week.
“When we do have our live ballots, which will probably be about the end of the week, Friday, definitely, hopefully Thursday, then we will have a bipartisan team of employees who will remake that ballot onto the live ballot stock and at that point in time, it'll be scanned,“ Perlatti said.
The May 3 ballot will include contests for federal offices including U.S. Senator and U.S. House and Ohio statewide contests including governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and Ohio Supreme Court. There will also be Cuyahoga County contests on the ballot, including county executive, county council, and a slate of judges.
“What will not be on the ballot is the Ohio House, the Ohio Senate and the Democratic and Republican State Central Committee offices. Those will be on an election to be determined, and the determination will be made by probably a combination of the Ohio General Assembly, as well as the different courts that are involved in litigation,” Perlatti said.
The deadline to request an absentee/vote-by-mail ballot is April 30 at noon. Perlatti reminds the public that this is a partisan election.
“What that means is that on that application, voters need to select whether they want the Democratic or Republican ballot. That is, the number one error that voters make in a primary is not selecting their ballot style. So they need to do that,” he said.
