The voting rights of U.S. citizens living outside the U.S. and members of the
uniformed services stationed outside Ohio are governed by federal law (The
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act - “UOCAVA”), as well
as state law.
Overseas Citizens: Generally, if you are a citizen
residing outside the U.S., you are eligible to vote in federal elections in
the state in which you resided immediately before leaving the U.S. if you
were, or could have, registered to vote in that state while residing there, or
currently are eligible under state law to vote in that state.
(Note: Federal law does not require any state to extend
voting eligibility to a person who has never resided in that state on the
basis that one or both of the person’s parents are, or were, residents in
that state. )
If you are eligible, you may vote a federal ballot (candidates for U.S.
president, vice president, U.S. Senate and member of the U.S. House of
Representatives) from the Ohio precinct in which you resided immediately
before leaving the U.S. to live in a foreign country, even though you may no
longer have ties to, and may not intend to return to, Ohio.
(Note: You must register to vote and/or request an
absentee ballot using the current Federal Post Card Application (FPCA)
postcard or the online version. The online FPCA can be downloaded from www.fvap.gov.)
You may also be eligible to vote a regular Ohio ballot if you maintain a
qualifying voting address in Ohio and have lived outside Ohio less than four
consecutive years.
Uniformed Services Personnel: If you are a member of the
uniformed services (armed forces, Merchant Marine, and the commissioned corps
of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration), you are eligible to vote a regular ballot from the voting
address in Ohio at which you resided for 30 days immediately before leaving
Ohio to commence active duty service.
For information regarding application deadlines, please see Absentee
Deadlines at the end of this section.
For additional information on voting by overseas citizens and uniformed
services personnel, please contact the Secretary of State’s Elections
Division or the board of elections in the Ohio county in which you previously
resided. You may also visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s Web
site: www.fvap.gov,
or the Overseas Vote Foundation’s Web site: ohio.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/home.htm.
Absentee
Deadlines
To receive your absentee ballot:
- In person: After absentee ballots are available for
voting, you may go to your county board of elections office or, if the
board has designated another location in the county at which registered
electors may vote, at that other location instead of the board of
elections office, during regular business hours, but no later than the day
before the election, and request, receive and vote your ballot at the
board office or other designated location.
- By mail: Beginning January 1, 2010, or 90 days before
the date of an election, you may mail your properly completed absentee
ballot application bearing your original signature to the board of
elections of the county in which your voting residence is located. The
board must receive your request by noon on the Saturday before the
election. However, you should submit your request as far in advance of the
election as possible to ensure there is sufficient time for the board to
mail you a ballot and for you to timely return that ballot.
- By fax: If you are a member of the U.S. armed forces or
an organized state militia, you may fax your absentee ballot request to
the board of elections of the county in which your voting residence is
located. The board must receive your request by noon on the Saturday
before the election. You may request that the board fax your ballot to
you, but you must return your marked ballot by mail.
- If you or your minor child is in the hospital on Election Day:
Regardless of where you or your minor child is hospitalized, you must
submit a properly completed and signed request to the board of elections
of the county in which your voting residence is located by 3 p.m. on
Election Day. To be eligible under this provision, you or your minor child
must be confined in a hospital because of an unforeseeable medical
emergency. Your application must specify where, why and when you or your
minor child came to be hospitalized. If you or your minor child is
hospitalized in the same county where you are registered to vote, two
representatives of the board of elections can deliver the ballot to you,
wait while you mark the ballot and return your voted ballot to the board
office. Additionally, you may include in your absentee ballot application
a request that your county board of elections give your unmarked ballot to
a designated relative – your spouse, father, mother, father-in-law,
mother-in-law, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, son, daughter,
adopted parent, adopted child, stepparent, stepchild, uncle, aunt, nephew
or niece – who shall deliver the ballot to you in the hospital and
return your voted ballot to the board office.
For your absentee ballot to be counted, it must be received as follows:
- If you are a voter in the United States, your ballot may be returned:
By U.S. Mail: the return envelope containing your
marked ballot must be postmarked no later than the day before the
election and received by the board of elections no later than 10 days
after a special, primary or general election. (Note:
Ohio’s election law states that “postmarked” does not include a
date marked by a postage evidence system, such as a postage meter.
Therefore, the return envelope must bear a valid postage cancellation
stamp affixed by the U.S. Postal Service.)
In person, either by you or an eligible family member:
your marked ballot, which must be sealed in the completed and signed
identification envelope provided with the ballot, must be delivered to
the board of elections office no later than the close of polls on
Election Day.
- If you are a voter outside the U.S. on Election Day, your ballot
envelope must be signed and postmarked by the close of polls on Election
Day and received by your county board of elections not later than the 10
days after a special, primary or general election, or 20 days after a
presidential primary election.
