Early voting starts today

EARLY VOTING HOURS

In-person early voting at the Butler County Board of Elections, 1802 Princeton Road in Hamilton, and Warren County Board of Elections, 502 Justice Drive in Lebanon, begins today, Oct. 6:

All voters can cast votes by mail. All vote-by-mail applications must be received at the Board of Elections no later than noon on Oct. 31 to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 election.

Source: Butler County and Warren County boards of elections

Early voting for Ohioans begins this morning, and this election will have “a major impact on the future of our state,” said the state’s chief elections official.

And if Ohioans did not register to vote, they are “not going to have the opportunity to participate in the election” that will see three possible changes to the state’s constitution, all involving monopolies, said Secretary of State Jon Husted.

On the ballot in November are:

“Those are three pretty important issues that will change the future of Ohio depending on whether they pass or fail,” said Husted. “There have been very few times where there have been that many constitutional amendments on one ballot.”

Then there are the local pocketbook issues that will impact taxpayers, both financially and in their quality of life, which Husted said should be “reason enough” for voters to cast a ballot.

In Butler and Warren counties, there are a handful of police, fire and school tax issues on the November ballot that will either maintain current tax levels or increase taxes.

Currently, around two-thirds of the country’s states permit some form of early voting, including three states that have all-mail voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Thousands of voters in Butler and Warren counties cast early votes two years ago when voter turnout was at 27.51 percent in Butler County and 24.91 percent in Warren County.

“It’s a benefit for voters who might find it difficult to vote on Election Day,” said Jocelyn Bucaro, Butler County Board of Elections deputy director, of the need for early voting in Ohio.

And anytime the elections office is open over the next four weeks, so is early voting, she said.

“It’s just a way to make it easier for voters to have more opportunities to vote,” Bucaro said. “A lot of voters forget to vote in these municipal years … and they tend to have a larger impact on individual lives.”

And “every vote matters” in every election, but especially in these local elections, said Husted.

In the past four elections — 2013 and 2014 general, 2014 primary and 2015 special — 61 races and 14 local issues statewide were decided by one vote or were tied, according to the Ohio Secretary of State data.

In the November 2014 election, the Madison Twp. road levy passed by only two votes.

Sarah Woiteshek Pietzuch, director for the Center of Civic Engagement at Miami University Hamilton, said early voting is about giving people more access to the polls.

“They can think about it and go to the polls when they want to prior to Election Day in November,” she said.

The Center for Civic Engagement worked to get more than 120 students registered to vote over six voter registration drives at the school, which Woiteshek Pietzuch said the majority of the school’s students are local.

“We hope they go to the polls and develop that habit of citizenship, that you vote every year not just every four years,” she said.

One refrain that people falsely believe is early votes don’t count, said Warren County Board of Elections Director Brian Sleeth, adding this is the first general election at the board’s new location, 520 Justice Drive in Lebanon.

“I hear that time and time again,” he said.

All early votes and Election Day votes are counted the night of the election. Provisional votes cast — a vote that is cannot be immediately verified — are counted during the official canvass of the election.