Absentee ballot applications being sent to registered Ohio voters

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Every registered voter in Ohio will soon be receiving a piece of mail from the Secretary of State's office. Voters will soon be receiving absentee ballot request forms in their mailboxes starting Tuesday. The office stresses these are not actual absentee ballots but request forms for the ballots. Ohio has been [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Every registered voter in Ohio will soon be receiving a piece of mail from the Secretary of State's office.

Voters will soon be receiving absentee ballot request forms in their mailboxes starting Tuesday.

The office stresses these are not actual absentee ballots but request forms for the ballots.

Ohio has been doing this for more than a decade during every presidential and gubernatorial election, the office said in a statement. Nearly 8 million registered votes will receive the ballot request forms.

"Unlike other states that recklessly send a ballot to every voter even if they did not request one, Ohio requires a voter to prove their identity when they request a ballot and again when they return that ballot," the Secretary of State's office said in the statement.

The secretary's office said anyone wanting to vote via absentee ballot in the Nov. 8 election should return their absentee ballot request form as soon as possible in order to allow processing through the postal service.

The applications will be sent in two rounds: First, to registered voters, and second, to people who are not currently registered but who do register before the Oct. 11 registration deadline.

The Secretary of State's office encourages those voting via absentee ballot to:

• Double check the information on both the application and the absentee ballot
• Include your e-mail and/or phone number
• Return your application and ballot as soon as possible
• Track your ballot using the state's online ballot tracker

Funding for the mailing was approved by the General Assembly earlier this year.

To see the process an absentee ballot takes, click here.

A sample of the absentee ballot application is below.