[EL] Reducing the Risk of an Election Meltdown

[Rich,William D]

Allowing the voter to submit a provisional ballot on election day is just a failsafe mechanism in case the absentee ballot gets lost in the mail or doesn’t arrive by the deadline (and the voter is able to get to the polls after all).

We process the (valid) absentee ballots before the polls close on election day but don’t tally them until the polls close.  If we were going to count the election-day provisional ballot rather than the absentee ballot, we wouldn’t be able to count the absentee ballots until after we had determined the validity of provisional election-day ballots, which occurs on the 11th day after election day (and, if Ohio law were changed in that regard, still couldn’t occur until after the “cure period” for provisional ballots).  That would create a far greater uncertainty problem than the one we currently have.

Bill Rich
University of Akron School of Law and
Chairman, Summit County Board of Elections

From: James Bopp Jr <jboppjr at aol.com>
Date: Friday, March 20, 2020 at 6:18 PM
To: William Rich <rich at uakron.edu>, "larrylevine at earthlink.net" <larrylevine at earthlink.net>, "rick.pildes at nyu.edu" <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>, "Martin.Lederman at law.georgetown.edu" <Martin.Lederman at law.georgetown.edu>, "rhasen at law.uci.edu" <rhasen at law.uci.edu>, "law-election at uci.edu" <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Reducing the Risk of an Election Meltdown

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of The University of Akron.

So in the Ohio example, a voter cannot trump his or her absentee ballot by voting on election day. In that instance, the election board could count absentee ballots before election day, but not in Indiana's case.

But I am not sure the Ohio's policy choice is the best. What is the justification to lock in the absentee ballot rather than the voter's choice on election day?  Jim Bopp

________________________________
On Friday, March 20, 2020 Rich,William D <rich at uakron.edu> wrote:

That’s not the way it works, at least in Ohio.  If a voter requests and is sent an absentee ballot and then shows up to vote on election day, the voter is given a provisional ballot.  If the absentee ballot is returned to the board of elections and is valid (countable), the absentee ballot is counted and the provisional election-day ballot is not counted.  If the absentee ballot is not returned or if it is returned but is invalid because of some deficiency (e.g., no signature on absentee ballot affirmation), the provisional election day ballot is counted (if it is valid).



Bill Rich

University of Akron School of Law and

Chairman, Summit County Board of Elections



From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of James Bopp Jr <jboppjr at aol.com>
Date: Friday, March 20, 2020 at 3:53 PM
To: "larrylevine at earthlink.net" <larrylevine at earthlink.net>, "rick.pildes at nyu.edu" <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>, "Martin.Lederman at law.georgetown.edu" <Martin.Lederman at law.georgetown.edu>, "rhasen at law.uci.edu" <rhasen at law.uci.edu>, "law-election at uci.edu" <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Reducing the Risk of an Election Meltdown



CAUTION: This email originated from outside of The University of Akron.

As I understand it, most state laws, including those in Indiana, permit a voter to come to the polling place to vote, even if they have sent in an absentee ballot.  So on election night, the first thing the poll workers do is to check the poll book to see if the absentee voter came to the polling place to vote. If so, the absentee ballot is not cast.

If you open and cast the absentee ballot before the election, how do you deal with a voter who wants to come to the polling place to vote?  I assume he or she would have to be prohibited from doing that. My policy preference is that the voter have this option since things might have changed since he or she sent in their absentee ballot and they may want to change their vote based on this additional information.



Is there another option or do you disagree with my policy preference?  Jim Bopp



In a message dated 3/20/2020 3:18:27 PM US Eastern Standard Time, larrylevine at earthlink.net writes:



As you note, some states already permit processing absentee ballots ahead of election day. There is not good reason why every state should not do that. That would lessen but not eliminate the issue of late and delayed results.
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