Precincts cannot get absentee ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio regulation does not permit voters to return absentee ballots at their precincts on Election Day, the state’s elections chief is cautioning amid a misinformation campaign all-around the safety of voting equipment that is urging them to do so.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose claimed individuals voters who heed advice from a well known countrywide team of Republican election deniers and maintain on to their paper ballots right until Nov. 8 need to provide them to their county board of elections business. Poll staff at precinct-level voting places are unable to acknowledge them, he claimed.

“This is why it really is hazardous for people today who really don’t know what they are conversing about to be dispensing poor elections-associated tips to people today,” he mentioned in an Affiliated Press job interview Tuesday. “Due to the fact if anyone is telling voters to just take their absentee ballot to their polling area on Election Working day, they are successfully instructing them how to disenfranchise by themselves.”

LaRose stated that probability has caused problem amongst county election officials.

The GOP activists — which include MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — echo lies that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and are urging GOP voters not to use the U.S. mail or a voting machine to cast their votes. Alternatively, they have inspired them to fill out a paper absentee ballot and return it in individual at the final minute.

The program is primarily based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting devices to rig final results for Democrats as soon as they have found how lots of Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any these popular fraud, nor that the 2020 election was stolen.

LaRose inspired Ohioans to look for responsible sources of facts — these types of as his office’s internet site, the website for their county board of elections and reports from dependable news corporations — as they make programs to vote.

He claimed simply just mailing an absentee ballot is the least difficult path for voters who have requested a person. For those people who have problems about the U.S. Postal Company, his business has established up an on-line ballot tracking tool.

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Safe ballot fall bins, just one found at each and every of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections, are one more alternative, he explained. Those workplaces also will accept absentee ballots in person until 7:30 p.m. on Election Night.

If a voter who has asked for an absentee ballot adjustments their intellect on Election Working day and decides to vote in man or woman at their precinct, they will be allowed to do so — but they will have to vote by provisional ballot, stated LaRose spokesperson Rob Nichols.

LaRose is up for reelection Nov. 8. He faces Democrat Chelsea Clark, a smaller business enterprise proprietor and city council member in suburban Cincinnati, and Terpsehore “Tore” Maras, a conservative podcaster and election denier who is functioning as an unbiased.