(upbeat music) (graphic pops) - Hello and welcome to Journal.

I'm Steve Kendall.

November 5th is election day, but a lot goes on, of course, all year round.

And before that there's early voting, there's absentee voting, all of those things that make our elections work and work well.

Joining us today is Terry Burton, one of the Directors of the Wood County Board of Elections, to kinda go over all that stuff that happens between now and November 5th, and then what happens on November 5th.

So, Terry, thank you for being here.

First of all, election day.

What are the voting hours in Ohio?

Because I'll have people say, they'll mention times I go, no, I think they opened at this time and close.

So on election day, November 5th, when are the polls open in Ohio?

- The polls are officially open, 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM at all the polling locations throughout the county.

And that's true statewide.

So, and any county that's watching this, that's the official hours.

- [Steve] Okay.

And let's say that, and I know, so sometimes people say, well, what's the cutoff point?

I'm running late, I think I can get there by 7:30.

At polling locations, what happens if I get in line, I have to be in line at 7:30.

Right?

I can't walk up and join the line after 7:30.

Correct?

- [Terry] Right.

So what happens is the poll workers actually are watching their line as it gets close to the close.

Obviously they're eager to end their day as well.

So they will send out a poll worker if there is a line to the end and make sure that whoever's in the line at 7:30 is able to vote and they will just extend voting until that line is is done.

And you know, it used to be that we had more of that last minute voting.

It seems like a recent trend is as people are doing it more earlier in the day and we don't have a whole lot of lines as it gets to the end of the day.

- Well, that's good because you know, obviously if people show up they immediately assume something is wrong because you won't let them vote.

But if they show up after the close of voting, legally you can't let them vote.

No matter how much you'd like to let them vote, you're not allowed to.

In terms of being registered, because obviously there's a cutoff date for that as well.

So what is the date to be registered for the November 5th election if you aren't registered already?

- So October 7th is the official close of registration.

So we will actually be open.

In fact, all the boards in Ohio are open until nine o'clock at night that day.

And yeah, if you have a change of address, if you have an update to your name, all those things, including just getting registered for the first time are available to you.

The other option is now you can go online through the Secretary of State's website and you can register there if you have an Ohio driver's license.

- And the other thing, you can check to see if you are indeed still registered as well by going to the Secretary of State site as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

When we look at all of those things, obviously voting November 5th, that's the traditional way we've done it, but over the years we've expanded to different things, whether it's absentee voting, early voting, that sort of thing.

What are the general rules for absentee voting?

Because that's gonna ramp up, ballots will start going out shortly.

What are some of the FAQs that people know need to know about absentee voting?

- Well, the main thing is they have to submit an application.

Every election, each voter that wants to get a ballot mailed to them has to submit an application for each election.

And so that's something that, you know, sometimes confuses people is they said, well, I thought I was on the list.

Well, there isn't a list.

It gets built every time through the application process.

And so once they do that, then as you said, October 8th is the first day that we legally can mail ballots.

So even though people have been providing us with these applications throughout the summer, we cannot legally mail them until we get to the October 8th, which is the day after the close of registration.

And then people can submit those applications up until October 29th, which is the Tuesday before election day.

And that has actually since last presidential gotten a little earlier than they're used to.

It used to be we mailed up until the Saturday before election, but now it's been moved to the Tuesday because there is some mail time there.

And so actually it's probably been a good thing for voters because we definitely can make sure that in that week we can get them the ballot if they've applied.

- Yeah.

And the important thing is that if they do everything correctly and arrives on time, you wanna be able to count their ballot.

And that's one of the concerns I think, you know, people say, gee, what happens to my absentee ballot once it goes in?

And talk about the process.

And so I vote absentee, everything's in on time, everything's done correctly.

How do those ballots get handled at the point that they're at the Board of elections and absentee ballot is returned in the mail?

Or can you drop your absentee ballot off?

- There is a drop box outside.

It's available 24/7.

Voters need to know that it has to be just their ballot that they drop in our drop box.

You can mail ballots back.

There's lots of options.

You can stop by our office.

If you're gonna drop for a family member, you need to come into our office.

And now there's a form that you'll need to fill out to make sure that you're dropping off as a family member.

But those, you know, those options are available.

And then once those ballots get to our office, we go through a process with each and every one of those envelopes to verify that the signature of the voter is there.

That the ID information is there, that all the information matches.

So we go through a verification process on each one of those to make sure it is the person that was to vote.

And then those ballots are then secured in a ballot room.

We do everything bipartisan in our office.

So anytime that we're handling ballots, I always laugh that it's Noah's Ark, we're two by two, one Republican, one Democrat.

And we go through the process then of opening those envelopes because they've been verified when they hit the ballot room.

And then those actually are some of the first ballots that results are released on, because those ballots actually counted those few days before election day.

They get scanned on our system.

And then at 7:30 on election night, all the mail ballot results and all the early vote results are actually in our first report that goes out.

- So when people see the early, when they see those initial numbers at 7:30, those are gonna be the absentee ballots and the early ballots that have already been filed and tabulated and then placed in the system.

So, okay, because some, you know, there was always, because you're like, well, wait a minute, I was ahead early, now I'm behind what happened?

Something, you know, all the myths of what goes on with the elections now that are the misconceptions.

With regard to absentee voting.

And you mentioned the new rules on who can basically file an absentee ballot.

Talk about the change there, because in the past it was a little less, the rules were different.

Now it's sort of like you have to verify that you have the authority to bring an absentee ballot in for someone.

Is that a rough way to say it?

- Yeah.

The rules really didn't change, but they very much formalized the process.

It had been the case where if you brought a ballot back, you know, you had to be a near family member.

And there's a list of those people that are, you know, reasonably expected.

- [Steve] Immediate family.

- Exactly.

But now they've formalized the process where we actually have to have a form signed just acknowledging that you are that immediate family.

We are gonna try to make that as streamlined as possible because we realize that once again, when people are coming to just drop off a ballot, they want to do that quickly.

That's the reason that they're doing it is to make that quick and convenient, you know, and once again, every mailed ballot can be, you know, a stamp can be put on it, or actually two stamps in this case, this election, and dropped in, you know, in a postal box.

And it'll come to our office too.

So there's lots of options.

Once again, at every level.

But for mail voting, they can return it by mail, they can drop it in the drop box or they can come into our office.

- [Steve] Okay.

Good.

Well, we come back.

The other thing I wanna talk about too is identification.

If you show up on election day or probably to early vote, some of the ID rules have changed in the last couple of elections.

And so if you haven't voted, maybe for a cycle or so, you might find out that, oh, the thing you brought in that used to allow you to vote for identification may not cut the muster anymore.

So we can talk about that in a moment.

Back in just a moment with Director Terry Burton of the Wood County Board of Elections here on the Journal.

You're with us on the journal.

Our guest is Terry Burton, Director of the Wood County Board of Elections.

One of the things that people might find when they come in to vote this time, if they haven't voted, maybe in a cycle or so, they're still registered, they're still eligible to vote.

Is that the ID rules have been altered, adjusted, changed a little bit.

So talk about what's different today versus maybe what people experienced a year ago, two years ago in terms of what, when they walk up to say, yes, I want to vote, the kind of ID they need to show to make themselves eligible.

- Yeah.

And you're absolutely right.

You know, people that haven't maybe voted since the last presidential are gonna see a few changes.

For most voters, they're gonna present their driver's license.

And that is the primary way that people interact with us.

- [Steve] That's like the simplest way for everybody to deal with.

- It is.

And so for most voters, they probably won't notice a lot.

However, if they do, if they do not have a valid driver's license, they can do a US passport.

Now, that once again, is a few more hoops for them to go through.

Or they also have a US military ID.

And so those are basically the three ways that they can show proof of ID, obviously a driver's license or a state ID card.

Those are interchangeable and all that count.

- [Steve] And they have to have current dates.

They can't be out of date, the dates on the license have to be current, have to be up to date.

They can't be five years ago, this is my driver's license.

I haven't gotten it renewed.

That won't work either.

- Correct.

It has to be an unexpired driver's license or state ID.

And also on ID, they do now designate non-citizens.

And so that is also basically if they have naturalized registered to vote, but still have an old ID that shows non-citizen, those folks also will want to get that updated before they go to vote.

- Yeah.

Now let's say that I walk in, and this is where it gets into what's called I guess provisional balloting, which is always kind of a interesting area.

I come in and my ID doesn't pass muster.

What happens to me at that point, you know, I've lived where I've lived.

I've voted up until this time, for some reason, this time they scan the barcode on my driver's license says not eligible vote in precinct number five.

What happens at that point to that person?

- [Terry] So they are, as you well said, they're gonna be offered a provisional ballot.

And people really have a misconception of what provisional ballots are.

They seem to have this belief that they're either not counted or that they aren't as good as a regular ballot.

And really what that is, is that's our chance to save folks that on election day for a bunch of reasons, don't qualify under the regular rules to cast a ballot.

But that buys us time because by doing that provisional ballot, it goes in the yellow envelope that they fill out.

And then it comes to our office and we have 10 days after the election to process through those.

Well, the voters actually have four days after election to, if they didn't bring a valid ID, to come to our office and show valid ID, and then that ballot will be counted.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- [Terry] And so it's basically a catchall for problems at the polls that allow us the time to either, you know, see if someone has a valid ID, see if they were registered somewhere else in the state and meet the other qualifications.

And so a grand majority of the provisional ballots are accountable by the time we get to our official count.

But there are some that don't.

- [Steve] Now, let's say for instance, and I've seen this happen.

Someone comes in, they live in its jurisdiction, we flash their license, you know, we flash their driver's ID and it shows that they're eligible to vote in a different precinct even though technically their address says they're in here.

And it's something that they've, we don't know how it happens, but I've seen it happen where we live literally across the road from the polling place, and for some reason their registration showing them 20 miles away at another precinct.

What happens to that person?

You can't send them up there to vote because technically they're living in a different precinct.

So is that one of those that you kind of have to sort through what happens at that point of impact?

I know that's a blindsiding question.

- [Terry] No, no, no, that's fine.

- [Steve] But it has been known to happen.

- Well, yeah.

So basically it's important for the individual voter to understand that they have to vote in the precinct in which they live.

So that's the first thing, is sometimes they might have a driver's license where the address is outta date.

Well that can be okay.

As long as they assert that the address that they are at is in the location where they're voting.

If it is not, then they do need to go to the appropriate location.

Because if they cast a ballot in a location that is not theirs, then basically that ballot can't be counted.

If they are assigned to a precinct that's different within a location, then it can be counted in certain circumstances.

But it's very important that they go to the voting location on election day where they're assigned.

And you know, and the whole thing, you know, with precinct lines, you can draw and draw and draw.

And somebody's always gonna be across the road.

- [Steve] There has to be a border somewhere.

- [Terry] Yeah.

- [Steve] Now, when we talk about precincts, because obviously over time, and it's happened all over the state, there's been a condensing of voting of balloting location of polling places.

What's the easiest way for someone to find out specifically where they're supposed to go to vote if they're voting on election day?

- [Terry] Really the easiest way is to go to our website, and now we even have a text system where you can text in and get connections to our website.

But that's the quickest, easiest way to do it.

You can make a phone call to our office, but what I will tell you is, is on election day- - [Steve] It's gonna be a little busy.

- [Terry] Yeah.

- [Steve] You guys are gonna be busy.

- [Terry] Exactly.

And you may wait a while before you can get a hold of a person.

But also just planning ahead, I mean, that's one of the things that we talk about is just planning ahead and if you're curious where your voting location is, do it that couple weeks before.

- Yeah.

Now is, and I know that one of the things we always hear too as we run up toward elections is how difficult it is to get poll workers.

Is that still a difficulty for the boards of elections?

- The answer to, do I need more poll workers, is always Yes.

But what I will say is in these presidential years, there's a lot of interest in a lot of excitement in the elections process.

And so people do tend to be more available and try to make themselves more available for these type of elections.

We struggle a little bit more in the off years.

Where it's just townships and villages and not on the news.

I mean, yes.

If people have any interest in being a poll worker, please contact your county Board of elections.

They'll be helping.

- [Steve] They'll be able to find something for you to do on that day or whatever.

Well, when we come back.

I also wanna ask about, because obviously now too, you mentioned the interest in these elections, there are official observers who are designated.

So we can talk about that process because I think people are confused about the fact you can, I guess you can walk in and sort of watch what's going on, but there are official people who have to file a form and all of that.

So we can talk about what it takes to become an official poll observer or whatever the technical term is.

Back in just a moment with Terry Burton, Director of Wood County Board of Elections here on the Journal.

Thanks for staying with us on the Journal.

Our guest is Terry Burton, one of the Directors of Wood County Board of Elections.

Terry, you mentioned the fact that there's, especially around presidential elections, people are involved, they're on top of things to some degree.

There are people who are, you can register as a poll observer.

So talk about that process, because sometimes people will kind of come in and stand around and watch, but technically, legally, to be an observer, there's a process you have to follow for that as well.

- Yeah.

To be a polling observer, you actually have to be assigned by one of the political parties.

So you actually, if you have an interest in that, you need to reach out to your county or state political party and indicate that.

There's a lot of rules around observers there, it's not just a open you know, thing where you can, you know, go in and do anything and question anything.

There's rules about how they go through their process.

And most observers are really good.

They just want to come and make sure that the process is going smoothly.

You know, report if there's any problems, you know, you know, with the voting process.

And generally that goes fairly easily.

Occasionally you'll have an observer that tries to maybe get a little over zealous in the process.

And then you can have conversations because once again, they're required to work within certain rules and certain parameters.

But that mainly comes through the political parties.

- [Steve] Okay, good.

Because yeah, I know there's some confusion over that too, where people sometimes think, oh, I can just go out there and hang out and watch people vote all day long.

And theoretically yes.

But it is, you, you're just not allowed to hang around like that unless you have some official capacity.

One of the other things that happens on election day is someone will come in and say, I think the person out there who's running for county commissioner, he or she's too close to the door with their signs.

They're stopping people on the way in and saying, vote for Bill Smith or vote for, you know, Susie Smith.

What are the rules on that, and how do you handle that at polling places where maybe finding the correct location maybe has some challenges?

- Yeah, I mean, polling locations are picked on a lot of principles, but generally campaigning is not one that we consider a lot.

However, certainly there are a lot of people that do that.

Basically polling locations are neutral zones, and once you go into the polling location, you're not supposed to have buttons or shirts or anything that says vote for.

You know, if you want to have maybe a slate card to remind you of who you wanna vote for, and you keep it private to yourself to take it to the booth, that's fine.

But, you know, there is a hundred foot rule from the door to the entrance that the voter uses to the polling location.

And I know that, for instance, our poll workers actually have a hundred foot tape that is in their supplies.

And occasionally we have to go out and remind people where that line is.

A lot of the people that do that do it do it at every election for different people.

And so we have our regulars that know where their line is.

- [Steve] Yeah.

And then other people that always like to test the system.

- [Terry] Exactly.

And if that's the case, once again, typically the first line of defense is the poll workers go out and have a reasonable conversation with folks and in general that takes care of it.

But it can be anywhere from in the middle of a parking lot to across the street.

You know, and some people like where they are, some people are not as happy about where they are, but bottom line is, it's the 100 feet.

- [Steve] That's the rule.

- [Terry] That's the rule.

- [Steve] And I think the goal here, I think people need to understand that the rules are applied uniformly.

It's not like, oh, this location does one thing, this location does another, that those rules are in place for everybody.

Now you mentioned clothing and attire or whatever.

How, let's say you have someone, I know we're doing a lot of hypotheticals here, but people will do this.

I walk in and I've got a shirt or a hat or whatever that says whatever, for a candidate or an issue or whatever it is.

Technically you're not supposed to have that inside the polling place.

How do the poll workers handle that?

When someone comes in and they've got a shirt that says vote yes on issue 10 or whatever?

What's the process for them to discuss with that person why that's not allowed?

- Well, and that's the thing is we tell our poll workers that that's an opportunity to have a discussion about what a neutral zone is and why the polling place needs to be a neutral zone and basically in general, encourage the voter to either cover up or in some cases they turn 'em inside out if it's a T-shirt and then go about their process of voting.

Occasionally you will have an individual that doesn't want to cooperate with that.

And so then the poll workers, we don't want them to escalate the situation by continuing to have disagreement, that's not gonna be productive.

And so basically we instruct our poll workers to basically get that person through the process as quickly as possible and out the door and outside the 100 feet, people need to be respectful of the neutral zone.

And, you know, we also have to make sure that paramount to everything, the voters that come to our polling locations are allowed to vote.

- Yeah.

Now, if I'm just, let's say that I'm, so the neutral zone isn't just for official representatives of candidates.

If I wearing a t-shirt in support of a candidate, am I allowed to stand in the 100 foot neutral zone and say, "Vote for so and so" or not, even though I'm just a regular citizen?

- [Terry] No, no.

They, on election day, those neutral zones apply to everyone that's doing any sort of campaigning.

And bottom line is whether they think it's just, you know, free speech or whatever, on that day it is campaigning.

- [Steve] It's campaigning.

- [Terry] And so yes, they would be asked to leave.

And then even for early voting, we have folks come to our courthouse, to our early voting and spend a month standing outside of the courthouse, outside of the 100 feet.

In the same process.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Wow.

So yeah, it is a challenge because people obviously want to support whatever they're doing or oppose whatever they want to oppose.

When you look at, and you mentioned early balloting, again, anything that people show, we talked about some, are there things that people can do to make sure that when they early vote, they they get the process correct and they get it taken care of?

Probably better to vote as early in the early voting process as possible?

- Yeah.

And I know I mentioned making a plan.

Really, people need to be deciding now what method works for them.

If it's the mail method, get your application in.

If it's the early vote method, then our hours already posted up on our website, of when that is.

And as you said, the earlier that you vote in the early vote process, the less likely you'll end up in any sort of line.

As we get, most of the month that we vote, folks, there will be no line for early voting.

You get down to those last couple weeks those last couple days.

And on Sunday they will wait an inordinate amount of time.

I think maybe they're just, it's kind of the Cedar Point complex where they just want to go wait in the line because if they would've done it at any other time, they would not.

- [Steve] They could have walked in, walked - [Terry] And probably if they went to their polling location on election, they'd be shorter than the line they'll wait on, on Sunday.

- [Steve] Wow.

That's interesting too.

With regard to what happens on election night at the Board of elections.

So 7:30 comes, the polls close at each of those locations.

The poll workers are in the process then of tabulating, or not tabulating, but they're basically securing the machines, shutting the machines down.

Everything's then taken under, you know, security, again, bipartisan because there's always at least a Democrat and a Republican doing everything, checking, signing, sealing, all of that, at the Board of elections at 7:31, what are you waiting to have happen at that point?

What's it feel like in that room where you're going, okay, here come the results.

What is that like that night?

- Well, at 7:30 it's a deep breath.

Because that means it's done.

What we're doing immediately is getting that first report ready to go.

We're checking our box.

We have two staff that'll be out at our drop box at 7:30 to officially close it, just like at the polls.

And then bring in whatever remaining ballots were in there.

So we are getting those uploaded.

We're basically prepping to get that first report out.

It'll typically go out around 7:45, 7:50.

And so, and at that point, then we're in waiting mode because we're a large county and it takes anywhere from, you know, a 10 minute drive to maybe a 50 minute drive if you're up in Northwood or one of our, you know, far-flung communities.

And so we have to wait for those poll workers to finish that up.

Once we start getting results in or getting the equipment and the supplies back, we're uploading the voting sticks and we're getting the tabulation, we're doing reports every 15 minutes out to the state as well as up on our website.

And then it's just a race to try to get through that process as quickly and efficiently as we can.

- [Steve] Yeah.

And get everything to a hundred percent counted.

- [Terry] Exactly.

- [Steve] Wow.

Great.

Well, Terry Burton, thank you so much for coming in and best wishes on a calm and straightforward, seamless, no event election day on November 5th, and between now and then as well and afterwards, because obviously things happen afterwards that are every bit as important.

because certification you said, I think 10 days later.

- [Terry] Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you so much for coming in.

You can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 PM on WBGU-PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Goodnight and good luck.

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