From staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS — Franklin County voters who received incorrect absentee ballots will receive corrected replacements.
Verify if you have received a correct absentee ballot
The county Elections Board said Wednesday it’s still trying to figure out how many of the county’s estimated 250,000 absentee ballots were affected.
Some ballots had an incorrect congressional race. Others had the correct information but were sent to voters in a different precinct.
The board says people with wrong ballots can also consider voting in-person at election board headquarters, 1700 Morse Road.
The board is blaming a malfunction on a high-speed scanner that proofs ballots for accuracy.
Board officials Wednesday afternoon said that the system had been tested and is now working as intended.
Not all ballots mailed are incorrect and the board is working to determine the number of impacted voters, but those who receive ballots in the mail are encouraged to check them before returning them.
Long lines developed early and stayed that way at election boards across the state, though Secretary of State Frank LaRose says voters who are in line when the board of elections closes at 5:00 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
Elections officials are hoping voters will take advantage of early voting opportunities between now and Election Day.
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Besides weekday voting, early voting will be available the two weekends before the election. Officials also urge those voting by mail not to wait until the final says, risking their vote arriving on time if the Postal Service is running behind.
Several high-profile cases of voters getting incorrect blank absentee ballots in the mail are raising questions about how often such mix-ups occur and whether they could affect the presidential election.
Experts say snafus happen during every election but say there should be adequate time between now and the close of polls on Nov. 3 to resolve them — even in the midst of a pandemic that has led to a surge in mail-in balloting.
Elections officials, ballot suppliers and security researchers say such problems do occur with some regularity. They don’t indicate fraud, they say, but rather human error.
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A federal judge in Cleveland has broadly interpreted a new state directive allowing ballot drop boxes at locations “outside” boards of elections as permitting them at multiple locations within a county.
The finding runs directly counter to the state election chief’s intention.
It was not immediately clear what impact U.S. District Judge Dan Polster’s decision would have on the number of drop boxes available across the presidential battleground state ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s staff said Monday that, when his latest order said “outside,” it meant only on board property.