How Ohio keeps voting safe and secure

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- There are exactly two weeks left until the start of early voting on Oct. 8, with the deadline to register to vote one day before, on Oct. 7. Voters can check to see if you are registered or register at voteohio.gov. 

“A lot of folks think that they are registered to vote, and they forgot that they moved, or their name changed,” director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio Jen Miller said. “Others have been removed from the rolls if they haven't voted recently, so we want every Ohioan to check their voter registration.” 

Miller said registering to vote, or verifying your registration, is not as daunting as it can seem. 

“As you have an Ohio-issued driver's license or state ID, you can update your registration or register for the first time online,” she said. “It doesn't take long at all, but there are also paper forms that you can get at libraries, at the DMV, at a lot of different facilities as well.” 

Watch: How safe are Ohio's elections?

Voter rolls are constantly updated. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said if you are a consistent voter, it should not impact you. 

“We maintain accurate voter rolls,” he said. “This shouldn't be controversial. When people die, we take them off the voter rolls. When people move out of state, we take them off the voter rolls. It's what Ohioans expect me to do, is what the law requires.” 

When you go vote, also keep in mind new voter ID laws. Nearly two years ago, Ohio began requiring photo ID to vote, so you cannot use something like a utility bill addressed to you to verify your identity in person anymore. 

“If you go to your polling location or the early vote center and you don't have your ID, you can vote provisionally, but you're going to get instructions, make sure you don't throw that piece of paper away and it'll tell you what steps you have to take to make sure your ballot counts,” Miller said. “You'll have to return to the board of Elections with proper ID to so that your ballot does count.” 

You can also request an absentee ballot now; the deadline to request one is Oct. 29. You do need to either mail in your absentee ballot request or take it to your board of elections. 

The ballot will be mailed to your house, and then you will have to either mail it back or drive it to the board, but you do not need a photo ID to vote absentee. The deadline to turn in your absentee ballot is Nov. 5, or it must be mailed in and postmarked by Nov. 5. If you mail it and it does not arrive by Nov. 9, it will not count. 

As far as ballot drop boxes go, there are new rules for those this election. 

“Drop boxes are an efficient and secure way to get your voter registration forms or absentee request forms to your ballot to the Board of Elections,” Miller said. “They're 600 pounds, they're bolted to the ground, they have 24/7 video surveillance and they're emptied by one Republican and one Democratic staffer. One thing to note this year is that if you're returning the ballot for a loved one, you will have to take that into the Board of Elections. Only individual voters can return their ballot to the 24/7 drop boxes.” 

When you are considering whether you want to cast your ballot in this election, which has races from the presidential all the way down to local levies, LaRose reminds you that voting in Ohio is secure, despite some rhetoric that says otherwise. 

“That kind of thing, unfortunately, happens from time to time,” LaRose said. “Our job, again, is to show Ohioans the facts and also to point out that Ohio is the gold standard. We do it well here. There’s always room for improvement. There is room for improvement in other states and my hope is that other states would follow Ohio's example.” 

And no matter which race you care most about this fall, Ohioans will be able to see results on Election Day, which is Nov. 5. LaRose said other states “have gotten that wrong,” because they don’t do the “logistics they need to” ahead of time. 

“We're going to get you those results done on election night, even if it means that we've got to pull a late night,” he said. “What that means is those are all the ballots that we currently have, those are the absentee votes, those are the ones that came in by mail, those are the early vote ballots. And, of course, the ones that are counted are cast on Election Day, all those get counted on election night. Why we have the official tally a few weeks later is because overseas military ballots still need to come in. We still need to leave time to resolve provisional ballots, for example.” 

LaRose said unless it is a “very, very thin margin,” Ohioans will know who won and lost that night. 

“On election night, the election was run so cleanly, so smoothly, so in such a trustworthy way that the person who came up short calls the winner and congratulates them. That’s the idea of how it should work,” he said. 

LaRose said there has been more than 99% accuracy in elections since he has been in office. Plus, he said ballots are verified. 

“We've had people say, ‘well, we shouldn't have electronic voting. We should just have paper voting.’ Well, you know, we have both in Ohio,” he said. “We have electronic results that give us that rapid result that we all want on election night and then we verify it with the paper. So those two in parallel, just one of the reasons why Ohioans know they can trust this process.” 

LaRose also said that voting machines are never connected to the internet, get tested before each election, and each polling place is run by both Democrats and Republicans.