Here's the text of Clyde's letter:
November 23, 2015
Secretary of State Jon Husted 180 E. Broad Street, 16th floor Columbus, Ohio 43215
Dear Secretary Husted,
I write to urge action to fix a major problem. Before tomorrow's deadline for the official vote count in the November 3rd election, counties need to be instructed to include ballots in the count that were rejected over minor errors, especially those that arrived at the Board of Elections without a postmark applied by the Post Office.
Just as you have instructed boards to seal envelopes for voters who fail to do so, you can also instruct boards to do the right thing and count ballots that arrive from the Post Office without a postmark. A directive from your office will solve this problem for the whole state. Summit County's nearly 900 rejections and Portage County’s 99 rejections for this reason show that we must not wait. A solution is needed now.
Voting is not easy in Ohio if a minor technicality or the failure of a third party to act results in a ballot being thrown out. Over 103,000 ballots have been rejected in general elections since 2011. The 2015 rejections will cause that number to climb even higher. Seventy elections have been decided by 1 vote in recent years. The dignity of each voter and the integrity of our election outcomes are at stake.
Thank you for attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
Kathleen Clyde
State Representative
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