Absentee ballots arriving- as well as….

I got my absentee ballot today. Lots to fill out on the outside of the envelope- lots of places where the Board of Elections can start asking questions. Didn’t check this box- fill this in right- we’ll toss it.

I’ll be extra careful- in fact, I’ll make a video of the process for people to watch – step by step.

Application for Absentee Ballot in 13 July 2010 OH-3 special

The request- with the party affiliation box click to download full size PDF

But- some voters, including my parents & my girlfriend, might be getting their request for absentee ballots back in the mail. Apparently, they didn’t check that they were democrats (despite voting as democrats in the May primary) and despite having filled out their e-mail and phone number, they were mailed additional request forms with instructions– and had to place postage on again.

UPDATE: The BOE has received appx: 4500 requests so far- and appx. 500 have had to be followed up with a letter- mostly because the voter didn’t check in the RED box- for voter affiliation is (ALL THE REST OF THE REQUIRED INFO IS IN YELLOW – color joke)

That’s appx a 10% FAIL rate.

If you’ve mailed your absentee back in and want to check if your ballot was received, they do have a crude lookup tool: http://www.mcohio.org/boe/absentee_download/absentee_tracking.cfm

The BOE could have just sent a ballot with a form 10z and saved a step…. but that would be too obvious.

I know someone is out there snickering, thinking it’s a genetic default in the Esrati family about dotting i’s and crossing t’s on BOE forms- but, that’s the reality- it’s all designed to be more complex a legalistic than it needs to be. A good user experience designer would solve these problems.

Warning- if you request a ballot by mail- if you try to vote in person on election day at the centralized voting places in Highland, Clinton or Montgomery County- you will be asked to vote provisionally, so send your ballots back in.

I’ve also included a scan of the instructions that come with your ballot- for you to review: Instructions to Absentee July 13 2010 PDF (of course, the BOE putting all this up online in an ADA format is too much to ask)

Bad news is that the return ballots are supposed to mail for 61 cents.

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