Board of Elections rejects 347 ballots cast on Nov. 8 over errors

SHEFFIELD TWP — The Lorain County Board of Elections voted Monday to reject 133 absentee ballots and 214 provisional ballots cast by Lorain County voters in the Nov. 8 election. By unanimous vote, the board accepted 27,471 absentee ballots as valid. That's 99.5 percent of the 27,604 submitted in the Nov. 8 general election. It also voted unanimously to accept 2,162, or 91 percent, of all provisional ballots cast. In the majority of cases, the board doesn't know who cast the rejected ballots, and in none of the cases does the board know who the voter cast their ballots for, elections officials said. The results of only one race from Election Day remain outstanding: Republican Jeff Riddell's challenge to incumbent Lorain County Commissioner Matt Lundy, a Democrat. Riddell, who attended Monday's meeting, currently leads Lundy by 320 votes according to incomplete and unofficial results from the board of elections. "It matters that we get these things right for the candidates," board member Anthony Giardini said. Rejected were: 84 absentee ballots returned by voters after the 7:30 p.m. deadline on Election Day, that were postmarked after Nov. 7, or that were not received by the Board of Elections until after the 10th day following Election Day; 19 absentee ballots returned without a voter's signature; 18 absentee ballots that didn't include proper voter identification. That includes 11 ballots with incorrect ID information on the ID envelope and seven ballots with no ID information on the ID envelope; Four absentee ballots with no stub attached. Ohio law requires such ballots be rejected; Four absentee ballots returned without an identification envelope; and Four absentee ballots returned with a signature that didn't match the one on file with the Board of Elections. According to the Ohio Secretary of State's Office, a provisional ballot "is used to record a vote if a voter's eligibility is in question and the voter would otherwise not be permitted to vote at his or her polling place." Elections officials then attempt to verify whether the voter and ballot can legitimately be counted. Among provisional ballots: 140 were rejected because the voters were not registered in the state of Ohio; 37 were rejected because the voters cast their provisional ballots at both the wrong polling location and in the wrong precinct.Of those 37, poll workers said 16 "refused" to go to their proper voting location, in some cases because it was after 7 p.m. on Election Day.What happened in the other 21 cases wasn't noted by poll workers in incident logs they keep at polling locations.Giardini recommended elections officials train poll workers to log all such incidents so there was some record of what exactly happened. 17 provisional ballots were rejected because they failed to provide identification or because the ID they provided was incorrect.Seven voters had expired driver's licenses and brought no other form of ID.Four voters were unable to provide any identification. Two provided Social Security numbers that didn't match elections records, two used the wrong number off their driver's licenses, and two gave incomplete license numbers that were either one digit short or two letters and two digits short.Board President Marilyn Jacobcik said she didn't see where it's a poll worker's responsibility to ask follow-up questions or double-check ID. Giardini disagreed with her, saying that poll workers should do exactly that.Jacobcik replied that it is a voter's responsibility to provide accurate information to the board of elections and poll workers.Board member Inez James, who has managed a polling station in the past, said she often checked voters' driver's licenses to make sure they were valid. 12 provisional ballots were rejected because voters had already cast their votes — some in person, Jacobcik noted.Two voted in-person at the Board of Elections during early voting on Oct. 12, two others in-person and early on Oct. 20, one on Oct. 26, and three sent in absentee ballots that were scanned and received at the Board of Elections between Oct. 18 and Oct. 29.One voter was assisted in voting at their nursing home on Oct. 26 and also voted on a provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day.Finally, three voters voted twice at the polls: Once on the ExpressVote digital system and then again provisionally at their polling place.None actually voted twice, because their ballots were flagged and halted by elections workers before they could be counted, Board of Elections Director Paul Adams said.The board voted unanimously to refer those 12 voters to the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office for further investigation. Two provisional ballots were rejected because voters did not include their date of birth on the envelope, three ballots were rejected because voters put their incorrect date of birth on the envelope, three ballots were rejected because the voter put an invalid or incomplete address on their ballots &emsp;&emsp;The board voted to accept the provisional ballots of 34 voters who voted in the correct polling place, but in the wrong precinct.In most of those cases the board said poll worker error was to blame: Voters were handed ballots that didn't match their precincts. The board will hold an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. today to review ballots for voter intent. "We just want to be cautious," Adams said. The board will then meet at 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, to certify the election results and set up an audit for those results. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.