Eric Dreiseidel sits in his car and speaks with Theresa Hook and Michelle Forrider from the Union County Board of Elections. Dreiseidel was taking advantage of the option that allows voters to cast a ballot curbside at the board office. (Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
More than 18,000 ballots already cast
When Eric Dreiseidel learned he had COVID-19, he wondered how he would vote.
His wife had told him to vote early, but he hadn’t done it yet. Now, with the diagnosis, he wondered how he could cast a ballot. He contacted the board office and he was told to come on in and give the board a call when he got there.
“We have things in place to help make sure people can vote and can do it safely,” said Tina LaRoche, deputy director of the Union County Board of Elections.
She said that even if someone has a positive COVID-19 test, they can still vote. She said a Republican and a Democrat from the office will walk a ballot to the voter who is asked to stay in their car.
When Dreiseidel arrived, elections specialists Theresa Hook, a democrat, and Michelle Forrider, a republican, covered themselves with personal protective equipment — plastic gowns, gloves, face shields and masks. They took an absentee ballot request to the man who filled it out in his car. Moments later a ballot was taken to him in similar fashion.
Within minutes, Dreiseidel drove away, his civic duty complete.
On that day earlier this week, he was not alone. A short, but steady line of voters queued at the board of elections office, waiting their turn to cast a ballot.
Joy Heino is a college student and an early voter.
“I feel really good,” Heino said as she left the Union County board of Elections office earlier this week. “I feel like I helped.”
Heino came to the Board of Elections with her father and a cheat sheet.
“My mom gave me a list of names to research and I wrote some things down,” she said.
She said she wanted to vote but was a bit anxious to do the mail-in ballot or the in-person voting on Election Day.
“I wanted to make sure I could do it,” Heino said of her decision to vote in-person.
Jason Green said he wanted to be able to vote faster, noting that voting in-office was both easy and safe.
Cindy Blair said she worried that finding time to vote was going to be problematic.
“I have to work in the school on Nov. 3 and I just wanted to get it done,” Blair said.
She said she usually votes on Election Day, but a friend told her how easy it was, “and I said, ‘That’s for me.’”
Mike Prior also usually votes on Election Day, but this year he, “just wanted to make sure I get in.”
And his thoughts on early voting at the board office?
“It was so easy,” Prior said. “I think everyone should do it.”
Board of Elections officials agree. LaRoche said early voting at the board of elections has been “crazy.”
“But it is a good crazy,” LaRoche said. “I would rather it be crazy here and a little slower at the polls because we can control things.”
How crazy?
At the close of business Tuesday, one week before Election Day, the Union County Board of Elections has already received 18,188 ballots, representing nearly 44% of the 41,000 registered voters in the county and nearly twice the total number of early ballots cast in the last Presidential election. In 2016, the 10,478 early votes accounted for about 37.5% of all votes.
Brandon Clay, director of the Union County Board of Elections, said this year’s early voting has been about 50/50 mail-in balloting to in office voting.
Statewide, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, as of Tuesday 2.2 million Ohioans have cast their ballot for the 2020 general election. After all the votes were counted in 2016, 1.9 million Ohioans voted early in-person or by mail.
“I think it is the unknown,” LaRoche said, explaining that people are worried that something will happen before or even on Election Day that could impact their ability to vote.
Clay said he thinks people would, “rather just get it done and avoid any unknowns.”
He also said many people do not want to come inside a polling location and expose themselves to COVID-19. That’s the reason the board offers curbside voting.
Even with all the early voting, LaRoche said everything has gone “smoothly.” Each voter gets a new ballot and a new stylus to use for voting. Election officials clean voting machines after each user. Counters and other surfaces are cleaned routinely. Masks are required, voters stand six feet apart, even in line, and there is a flow of traffic coming into and through the building. Additionally, there is hand sanitizer at a variety of locations throughout the office.
“I think we are doing everything we can to keep people safe and to help them feel comfortable,” LaRoche said, noting that voters have complied with the new requirements and are complimentary of steps taken by the board.
“I think people have been cooperative and appreciate what we’ve done,” LaRoche said.
But, officials said, time is running out for early voters.
Officials said that if a voter has requested an absentee ballot, it must be delivered to the board of elections office before 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, or postmarked by Nov. 2.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office reminds people to read and fill out their ballot completely, then double check the information.
Voters are also being told not to wait to mail their ballots.
“To accommodate necessary processing time at the county board of elections and the time required for the United States Postal Service to deliver elections mail, voters should not procrastinate – fill out and mail your absentee ballot request as soon as possible,” according to information from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office. The U.S. Postal Service is creating processes to make sure ballots are received and on time.
“Also, if they requested a ballot and show up to the polls to vote on Election Day, they will need to vote a provisional ballot,” LaRoche said. “The poll workers are not allowed to accept absentee ballots in any form, voted or not.”
Early voting will be available at the Board of Elections office from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, Thursday and Friday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday.