Today, Wednesday March 25, the Ohio legislature passed and sent to Governor DeWine a bill that among many other provisions addressing disruption doe to COVID-19, extends the voting period for the primary election.
Originally scheduled for March 17, Governor DeWine created uncertainly when he announced, less than five hours before poll workers were due at locations to set up, that in-person voting was being called off and the primary was postponed until June 2. It wasn’t clear if in-person voting could or would take place then. And in deferring the primary ten weeks, it effectively eliminated Ohio’s role in choosing a Democratic presidential candidate and left primary candidates for down ballot offices up in the air, unable to pivot to the general election. And as many have pointed out, there’s no way of knowing where the pandemic will be then.
Now the legislature is doing just what the Ohio Democratic Party filed a motion with the Ohio Supreme Court to do: it’s agreed to let mail-in ballots be accepted through April 28. There will be no further in-person voting except to accommodate those with disabilities and those with no access to mail service.
A postcard will be mailed to every registered voter who has not yet voted, explaining how to get a mail-in ballot application. Those applications will then be mailed, or a vote can go online and print or request an application. All ballots postmarked by April 28 will be counted.
That’s the right move. Perhaps we can then make this permanent, like Oregon, whose voter participation has gone through the roof since it started automatically sending ballots to all registered voters to vote by mail or drop-off.