Report: Ohio absentee ballot applications rejected due to signature issues

By: Tyler Buchanan - December 16, 2019 11:07 am

This voting sticker, designed by student Emily Legg, was chosen in May to be the new sticker in Ohio. Photo courtesy the Secretary of State’s Office.

Issues with signatures proved to be the difference in thousands of Ohioans not being able to vote in last year’s general election, an Associated Press investigation found.

These voters had requested absentee ballots but did not receive them “because of missing or mismatched signatures on their ballot applications,” AP reported.

More than 6,500 absentee ballot applications were rejected in 21 counties around the state.

There were around 1.4 million absentee ballots cast in Ohio last year, according to the AP, when voters decided upon the governorship, congressional races and a U.S. Senate race.

That’s up from 477,000 in the 2014 election.

You can read the full Associated Press report about the latest absentee ballot issues here.

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Tyler Buchanan

Tyler Buchanan is an award-winning journalist who has covered Ohio politics and government for the past decade. A Bellevue native and graduate of Bowling Green State University, he most recently spent 6 1/2 years as a reporter and editor of The Athens Messenger and Vinton-Jackson Courier newspapers. He is a member of the BG News Alumni Society Board and was a 2019 fellow in the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism.