68 ballots rejected by Lorain County Board of Elections due to errors

SHEFFIELD TWP. — Sorting through a list of errors made by voters, the Lorain County Board of Elections on Tuesday rejected 68 ballots cast in the spring primary. While most were clear-cut cases under Ohio law, a few resulted in debate between Democrats and Republicans who equally make up the board. "People are not aware of the great lengths we go to after an election to try to find somebody" to solve any issues before rejecting ballots," said board President Marilyn Jacobcik, a Republican. Five were absentee ballots that didn't include the proper identification. Official forms were sent to those voters asking them to fix the ID problems, but none responded, according to elections Director Paul Adams. Three were absentee ballots that were returned without the identification envelope at all. Those voters when contacted also did not move to fix the issue. Twelve absentee ballots were postmarked after the deadline and were therefore not valid. Four absentee ballots were returned without signatures. One other ID envelope was received with no ballot inside. There was nothing there to reject, Adams said, but the situation was noted by the board. The board rejected 22 provisional ballots cast by people who were not registered to vote in Ohio. Eight ballots were rejected because they were cast at the wrong polling location and wrong precinct. Of those, Adams noted that one person refused to go to the correct polling place when asked by workers. Another arrived at exactly 7:30 p.m. — closing time — and could not get to their correct voting place in time to take part in the election. A third insisted on trying to cast his ballot at the wrong location so that he could vote with his girlfriend. The Board of Elections was more lenient for eight other provisional voters who were in the right polling location but the wrong precinct. Adams said those instances may have been the result of mistakes made by poll workers — all eight were allowed to stand. A few ballots with invalid or incomplete addresses were also rejected; one tried to use a post office box instead of a home address, and another wrote in a house number but failed to include the street name. In that batch, elections officials rejected the provisional ballot of a person who showed up at an Amherst polling location and demanded to vote there even though he lives in Westlake, according to Adams. The man allegedly said he pays taxes in Amherst — Adams said records show he owns a house there, but it is not the man's legal residence. Another provisional ballot was rejected because the voter failed to sign the envelope. Ten provisional ballots were rejected because voters failed to provide identification or their personal information did not check out. Several of those were due to expired driver's licenses. Those people were given seven days after the election to provide valid IDs but did not. Other rejections were due to failure to provide Social Security numbers. Two of those provisional ballots were thrown out because voters did not write down driver's license numbers correctly. Board member Anthony Giardini, a Democrat, strongly objected to tossing one of the ballots, arguing the would-be voter had made "an honest mistake" by writing the correct license numbers but using OH for the two required letters, ostensibly thinking they would stand for Ohio. The goal of the review process is to prevent fraud, and Giardini said that with all other correct information provided there was no indication of voter fraud in this case. "We're going to toss his ballot because he read his driver's license number wrong," he said. Giardini was the lone board member to vote against rejecting that ballot. In the final case, Board of Elections members debated whether to accept the ballot of a person who was supposed to write their driver's license number but instead put the reference number from the bottom of the card. Making an exception would open a door best left closed, Jacobcik said. "I have a problem with opening the door and setting a precedent to something that's going to create us issues in the future," she said. Adams said that after the rejections, 99.4 percent of absentee and 88.9 percent of provisional ballots were accepted. The primary has yet to be finalized. Certification of the election results is scheduled for May 25. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.