COLUMBUS, Ohio - Just 14 days ahead of the November 6 General Election, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted today is reminding voters they have several convenient ways to cast a ballot, which includes absentee voting by mail or in person - giving them 24 hours a day to vote from home or nearly 200 hours to vote in person that includes weeknights and weekends, respectively. There are 13 hours to vote on Election Day. The full, detailed and interactive 2018 elections calendar is available online.
Under state law, voters have until noon on Saturday, November 3, to request an absentee ballot by mail from their county board of elections. Completed absentee ballots may be returned by mail or in person. If returning an absentee ballot by mail, it must be postmarked by Monday, November 5, and arrive at the board of elections’ office within 10 days of Election Day in order to be eligible to be counted. If returning an absentee ballot in person, it must be dropped off at the county board of elections by the close of polls on Election Day. Voters may not return their absentee ballot at a polling location. A completed ballot may be returned by a family member.
Secretary Husted also announced today that as of Friday, October 19, an estimated 1,053,697 absentee ballots had been requested and 332,663 had been cast statewide. This includes more than 8,620 ballot requests from military and overseas voters, whose absentee ballots started going out on Saturday, September 22, of which nearly 2,160 have been cast. Ballots for all other voters started going out on October 10 and more than 330,000 have been cast by mail and in person.
2018 General Election By-the-Numbers
- 8,069,215 Ohioans are registered to vote.
- 962,829 voters have requested an absentee ballot by mail as of Friday.
- Of those, 241,795 have been cast.
- 90,868 voters have requested and cast an absentee ballot in person as of Friday.8,620 military & overseas voters have requested an absentee ballot as of Friday.
- Of those, 2,160 have been cast.
At this same point during absentee voting in 2014, nearly 810,000 absentee ballots had been requested and more than 272,000 ballots had already been cast.
During the 2018 General Election, voters will decide a statewide ballot initiative, as well as races for both state and federal offices. There will also be 1,661 local issues (opens in a new window)(opens in a new window) across the state and a number of local races, which voters can obtain additional information on by contacting their county board of elections.
For more information on the upcoming November 6 General Election or to download an absentee ballot request form, visit MyOhioVote.com.