Am. HB 197, which was unanimously passed by the Ohio House and Senate on Wednesday, March 25 and was signed into law by Gov. DeWine on Friday, March 27, extended Ohio’s Primary Election to Tuesday, April 28. For those who already cast their votes either by in-person early voting or through an absentee ballot, their votes will be counted and nothing else needs to be done. For those who did not vote yet in the Primary Election they can do so following these steps:

There will be no in-person voting except for those who have a disability. Registered voters must request an absentee ballot by April 25 through the Secretary of State’s website or by calling their county board of elections and an absentee ballot request form will be mailed to them. When filling out the absentee ballot request form, the date of the election is still March 17, 2020. The type of election is Primary. Then the voter can request a partisan ballot or an Issues Only ballot. The absentee ballot request form must be mailed to the appropriate county board of elections, the address can be found here.

When the request is received by the board of elections, it will be processed and an official ballot with a post-paid envelope will be sent to the voter.

The voter then must complete the ballot and send it back to their county’s board of elections in the postpaid envelope with a postmark date on or before April 27. The ballot can also be returned by hand to the board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on April 28.

All previously cast ballots and the newly cast absentee ballots cannot be counted until after 7:30 p.m. on April 28 with results announced thereafter. However, because the absentee ballots have to be postmarked by April 27, the complete results will not be known until May 8 when the election will be certified.