Absentee ballot mailings delayed in Summit and other Ohio counties

[RandySF]

The mailing of hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots across Ohio — including 95,000 in Summit County — has been delayed as a private vendor deals with triple the expected volume and equipment issues.

Midwest Direct CEO Richard Gebbie said his company will produce 1.1 million absentee ballots for the current election. The first round of printing, though, won't be ready for the United States Postal Service to pick up and begin delivering until Monday evening. The Cleveland company, which has been around since 1982 and in the business of printing ballots for a decade, is currently contracted to print ballots and stuff them in envelopes for boards of elections in 20 Ohio counties.

Most clients are in the northeast. Some are as far away as Butler County near Cincinnati.

Locally, the company was hired by Summit and Cuyahoga counties, and is the subcontracted ballot printer in Stark County. Gebbie would not share a complete list of clients. But he said Midwest Direct is not working for Medina or Portage counties this election.

Since signing the printing contracts, Gebbie said, his 20 clients have collectively tripled the number of absentee ballots they need printed as Ohio and the country experience an unprecedented spike in mail-in voting during the pandemic.

The delivery delay will impact each county differently. In some less populous counties, the orders were more easily filled on time, he said. In others, like Summit County, vote-by-mail ballots may begin to trickle out Saturday but won't begin to arrive in most mailboxes until the middle of next week.




https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2020/10/08/absentee-ballot-mailings-delayed-summit-cuyahoga-and-18-other-counties/5925499002/

[Chili]

1. no no no no no no no

SH*T.

My ballot - Cuyahoga - was supposedly mailed Monday. Waiting.

Come on, don't do this...

[LisaL]

2. And Franklin mailed the ballots out on time.

But opsie, some of the ballots are wrong. And they don't know how many.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/08/franklin-county-still-cant-determine-number-bad-absentee-ballots/5917819002/

[LisaL]

3. By the way, if ballot doesn't show up,

there is an option to vote early in a single early voting place per county.
They won't let people to vote in person on election day by a regular ballot, if those people requested an absentee ballot. But as far as I can tell, there is an option to vote in person early.

[Chili]

7. thank you

I might have to do that...

Waiting for today's mail...

[Maeve]

17. Correct, altho on election day, you can vote provisionally

It will count if there is no other record of you voting (but may not be counted until 10 days later, so official, but not immediate tally)

[Rice4VP]

4. I saw hundreds of people on line to vote on the first

Last edited Fri Oct 9, 2020, 07:56 AM - Edit history (1)

day in Ohio and it was encouraging. Why don’t you join the line instead of relying on USPS?

[LisaL]

5. Long voting lines are encouraging? Do the math.

There is one early voting place per county.
On a best day a single voting place can accommodate about 3,000 people. There have been several hundreds of thousands absentee ballots requested per large county. Do you think all these people can manage to vote in a singe voting place per county, when that voting place can accommodate about 3,000 people per day, and that with lines forming outside? If 200,000 people requested absentees, and 3,000 people can vote per day in a single voting place, it would mean 66 days would be needed to accomodate those people (and that would prevent anybody who didn't request an absentee ballot from voting early).
Do we have 66 early voting days until the election?

[Rice4VP]

6. On the first day, yes!

Especially when all of the people are wearing masks. More than likely they are there to vote for Biden. The lines were in Democratic counties.

My state has in person early voting for first time and we had long lines on that first weekend. Almost 1M people have already voted since September 18 Virginia

[LisaL]

12. One early voting place per county of over million people.

Let's just say, the long lines are not just on the first day.

[Chili]

9. and I live in Cuyahoga

If I were in a small county, it would be easier... but no.

Thanks neighbor...!

[LisaL]

10. I am in Franklin, where they send some people wrong ballots.

So far, they can't tell how many people got wrong ballots, and how big the problem is. But hey, we got the ballots really fast.
Might be the wrong ones, but we got them fast.

[Chili]

8. first, my health is not that great

Standing in line for even an hour would be difficult.

Also, I'm very high-risk for COVID. Dropping it off at a ballot box would work. However, I might have to risk it if I don't get the ballot.

[LisaL]

11. Did they tell that they mailed your ballot on Monday?

Apparently Cuyahoga is mailing the ballots in stages, and not everyone's ballot was mailed on Monday.

[Chili]

14. yes, there was the Oct 6 date earlier this week, but now...

...it says "Your ballot will be placed in the mail by: 10/12/2020"

So at least I know what's going on - part of that delay, that Monday date is in the article.

As long as I get it next week, I can drive downtown and put it in the ballot box.

*still sweating*

[LisaL]

16. Well, Franklin did it really quick, unfortunately

nearly 50,000 people got wrong ballots.
So now Franklin has to re-send 50,000 ballots.

[Chili]

19. oh no - Columbus

I have a good friend in Columbus, she already dropped hers into a ballot box.

What is the issue with the ballot?

[LisaL]

21. 50,000 people got ballots meant for somebody else because machine

that was supposed to make sure ballots were correct got turned off. Did you friend check to make sure her ballot was correct? Basically, a person is supposed to get a ballot matching his or her precinct.
People got ballots for precincts that was not theirs.

[Chili]

23. I'll have to ask her...

not sure if she made a photocopy, otherwise she may not be sure...

[LisaL]

25. I don't take a photo of mine because in OH it's not legal to show how you voted to others.

NT

[Chili]

26. don't tell me that...!

Didn't know that...

Whenever we've had scary elections like this, I make a photo copy just in case my vote didn't count when I track it. That's never happened, thank goodness, but I've never shown it to anyone, it's just for me.

[LisaL]

13. Same here. High risk for covid, not able to stand for a long time in line.

Got a ballot very quickly, but don't know for sure if I got the correct ballot. I filled mine and sealed it into an envelope, before word got out about the problems with people getting wrong ballots.

[Chili]

15. oh no... wrong ballot

I just stopped working, so I have a lot to catch up on... !

[LisaL]

18. A laser scanner that was supposed to make sure that correct ballots were placed into correct

envelopes. Somebody turned it off at some point of time.

[Chili]

20. ohhhh

okay, ignore my question above.

Crap!

[LisaL]

22. They say they will mail correct ballots to those affected within 72 hours.

NT

[Chili]

24. well that's good

... so anyone who wasn't aware will get a new one anyway.

Sheesh! This year...