Ohio Absentee Ballot Application: Fill & Download for Free

It doesn’t.The answer they will give you is that it reduces the number of dead people on the voter rolls and the number of people who have moved away who are still on the voter rolls.These things are certainly true. And they sound good.But they don’t have any relationship to the integrity of elections, because there is no evidence in modern America of any material voting impersonation of dead people or of people who have moved away from the state.It also disenfranchises countless US citizens, still alive and resident in the state of Ohio, who happened to have the flu or be away on a trip on Election Day two years ago. It’s not as if Ohio made it easy to get an absentee ballot, either. Here are the requirements:You may use the application form prescribed by the Secretary of State (Form 11-A) or provided to you by your county board of elections to apply for your absentee ballot. If you choose not to use the prescribed form, your written application need not be in any particular format, but it must contain all of the following information:Your name;Your legal signature;The address at which you are registered to vote;Your date of birth;One of the following items showing proof of your identification:Your Ohio driver's license number (begins with two letters followed by six numbers);The last four digits of your Social Security number; orA copy of a current and valid photo identification, a military identification, or a current (within the last 12 months) utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document (other than a notice of voter registration mailed by a board of elections) that shows the voter’s name and current address.A statement identifying the election for which you are requesting an absentee ballot;A statement that you are a qualified elector;If the request is for a partisan primary election ballot, your political party affiliation; andIf you want the ballot to be mailed to a different address than where you are registered, the address to which you want it mailed.Absentee Voting - Ohio Secretary of StateJust look at that. A voter could write for an absentee ballot, include all that information, and be denied because the letter did not contain the statement “I am a qualified elector.”This is about voter suppression, pure and simple, and it is a direct assault on the right to vote.

The news story says Ohio has been sending absentee ballot applications to all registered voters for the past decade, so the only new thing in this process is using federal money for this purpose.In Ohio, to receive an absentee ballot a registered voter needs to provide along with their application their drivers’ license/state ID number, the last four digits of their social security number, or photographic evidence of some other form of identification that links their name with their registered address. Many states, whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, are sending absentee ballot applications to every voter this year.Some states conduct their elections entirely by mail, and thus for years have been sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter, skipping the application process.

The “issues only” absentee ballot selection only applies to primary elections. It’s there if you want to vote on issues, but not to identify with a political party. The instructions in the back of the Ohio absentee ballot application form say:If requesting a ballot for a primary election, and you wish to vote in a party’s primary election, make sure you have checked your desired party. If you do not wish to affiliate with a party or to vote in their primary, choose “Issues Only.” [1][1][1][1]In the general election, all absentee voters get to vote on everything they are eligible for.Footnotes[1] https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/forms/11-a_english.pdf[1] https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/forms/11-a_english.pdf[1] https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/forms/11-a_english.pdf[1] https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/forms/11-a_english.pdf