If you or your kids are away at college and want to vote in the upcoming November elections, there are some steps you need to take.
- Make sure you are registered to vote. You can print the form or walk into some locations and register. The deadline to register to vote in Ohio for the upcoming general election is October 11th.
- Register for an absentee ballot – Be careful you do not have your “Block Pop-Ups” activated on your browser or the print button will not work at the bottom of the absentee ballot request application. To disable this in your Chrome Browser, you go to the icon in front of the url and right click it – then choose to allow pop ups. See the screen shot and arrows in the image below. You will need to reload the page for the blocking to be allowed, which means if you have already filled in the form you will need to do it again. Luckily it is short.
- Make sure you follow the instructions. You need to print the form, sign it and return it to your local board of elections – you can find the address here. They will then mail you your absentee ballot.
What if you or your student has waited too long?
Ohio Absentee voting states the request for an absentee ballot must be received by noon on the third day before Election Day. And when sending it in, postmarked the day before Election Day and received no later than 10 days after Election Day (by mail). (According to Vote.org) That seems very at the last minute to me, but when you are busy with classes and new friends, the fate of the country seems like a small, last minute kind of thing for some people. Not judging. (Actually just a little bit)
Who you vote for is up to you. But not participating does not lead to change or progress – it leads to government not taking your opinion seriously. Mail it in.
