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If voting by mail, don’t delay

A record number of mail-in votes are expected for this election.

The most pressing questions in Ohio, which could be a key state in the presidential election, deal with the preparedness of county boards of elections to process ballot requests, and the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to get all those ballots to voters and then back to boards to be counted.

These are huge tasks that pose challenges under normal circumstances.

Now consider that this is happening during a pandemic while postal workers are saying they’re being asked to overcome obstacles put in place by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

If there’s only one thing readers can take from this column, it is this: if you’re voting by mail, get your requests in quickly. And when you get your ballots, don’t take your time mailing them back.

Concerned about getting ballots to your board of elections on time? Each also has a secure dropbox outside their offices where voters may drop off their ballots.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has decided there can be only one box per county. For now, that means if you live in a big county, you’re going to have to drive miles to get to that location if you want to drop off your ballot in person. The Ohio Democratic Party is suing LaRose to permit counties to install multiple dropboxes. We’ll see how that plays out. Under these extraordinary circumstances, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have at least a second box in counties that can guarantee its security.

The most important concern is making sure every person who wants to vote is able and ensuring all their ballots are counted.

In Trumbull County, more than 10,000 requests for ballots already have been mailed to the board of elections. The Mahoning board will hit that number shortly.

Stephanie Penrose, Trumbull’s elections director, expects about half of all registered voters in that county to use the mail system.

Joyce Kale-Pesta, Mahoning’s election director, believes about a quarter of all registered voters in that county will cast ballots by mail.

Playing into this are concerns raised by postal workers about the removal of high-speed mail-sorting machines — including at least two of the seven at Youngstown’s main office — which has resulted in slowing down workers’ ability to process mail.

Under pressure from Congress and postal workers, DeJoy backed down from plans to remove even more sorting machines and make other draconian cuts to the Postal Service. But the machines that already have been removed aren’t being returned.

State law does not permit county boards of elections to mail ballots to those who’ve requested them until Oct. 6, the same day early in-person voting begins, so don’t panic if you’ve mailed a request and haven’t received anything back. You’re not supposed to at this point.

Election officials in Mahoning and Trumbull counties say they are processing the ballot requests now, and they will be ready to mail out the first batch Oct. 6. They also say they will continue to do that daily as requests come in.

But as I mentioned, don’t wait to mail your ballots back.

Under state law, ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 2, the day before the election, and in the hands of boards of elections no later than 10 days after Election Day to be counted.

This election is going to see a huge amount of people voting by mail. USPS employees tell me they can handle the amount of mail as long as further cuts aren’t made — and it wouldn’t be a problem at all if the sorting machines were restored.

You can always go to your polling location Nov. 3 to vote.

However you decide to vote, the important thing is to make sure it’s in the hands of those who will count them in a timely manner.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com

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