Voter scams impact absentee ballot voting across Ohio

With the November election rapidly approaching, Ohio residents have already begun receiving absentee ballots through the mail. The Butler County Board of Elections began sending ballots on Oct. 8, which can be returned anytime between now and 7:30 p.m. on election day.

How these ballots are returned is crucial to whether or not they can be counted in the election. With recent phone scams giving voters false information on how to return their ballots, information is becoming increasingly unclear to absentee voters.

The Butler County Board of Elections received a phone call on Thursday, Sept. 19 after hours from a confused voter, saying he and his wife received a phone call from an unknown caller, instructing them to return their ballot to the Butler County Democratic Headquarters in West Chester.

The problem is, that’s illegal.

Voters must return their ballots to the ballot box or inside the lobby of their county’s board of elections if they are returning it on their own. Eric Corbin, deputy director of the Butler County Board of Elections, said voters also have the option of mailing their ballot to the board of elections.

“[After being notified], we reported [the incident] to the Secretary of State’s office, which is something we’re supposed to do,” Corbin said. “We also put a social media post out just to remind people, ‘Hey, only return your ballot to the board of elections, whether it’s through the mail, in person or in the drop box.’”

The Butler County Board of Elections notified the Butler County Democrats of the phone calls shortly after they happened. Kathy Wyenandt, party chair for the Butler County Democrats, said these phone calls were targeting registered Democrats and implied they were coming from the Butler County Democrats, which they were not.

“It’s illegal for anyone other than the absentee voter or a member of his or her immediate family to touch an absentee ballot that doesn’t belong to them,” Wyenandt said. “Putting out false information like this phone scam is an attempt to suppress the vote and cause absentee ballots to not be counted. We cannot and will not accept absentee ballots at the Democratic Party office.”

The number used to spread this information was not traced back to any one person, and when the voter who reported this call attempted to call the number back, the receiver said the number had been discontinued.

Corbin said he has seen Facebook posts with misleading information on them, including incorrect hours of early voting or the hours that the polls are going to be open. In response, Corbin said they have contacted sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter to get these posts taken down.

In Hamilton County, the board of elections faced a similar issue at the July 9 board meeting. Black Fork Strategies, an Ohio-based organization that focuses on voter engagement and registration amongst other initiatives, submitted potential false registration forms.

Black Fork conducted a voter registration drive over the summer, both in Hamilton County and throughout Ohio. Several of the registrations submitted to the board of elections were flagged as suspicious, Sherry Poland, director of elections, said.

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Two of the registration forms listed a change of address for two voters to the same business address as one of the voters. Upon opening the change acknowledgement sent out by the board of elections, the two voters appeared at the board office, stating neither of them had submitted a change of address form.

Another red flag raised from the registration forms submitted by Black Fork came from a stack of nearly 100 registration forms, which all appeared to have been filled out in the same handwriting. Poland held up these registration forms at the meeting, saying that further investigation would be needed for all of the questionable submitted forms.

Joseph Mallory, member of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said during the meeting he heard about suspicious registration forms in other counties throughout Ohio and suggested the matter be taken to the Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Office for further investigation.

“This is fraud,” board member Alex Triantafilou said. “This is outright fraudulent behavior … It’s plain and obvious to me that when you get this many registration cards with the very same handwriting, that someone is trying to defraud the elections process in Hamilton County.”

The board contacted Black Fork about these forms and received the contact information of the canvassers who submitted them.

In Butler County, absentee ballots must be postmarked by Monday, Nov. 4 and returned to the Board of Elections office on Princeton Road by 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5 to be counted in the 2024 election.

Wyenandt said some things to note with returning absentee ballots are if voters are mailing them, they need two stamps. Absentee ballots also cannot be handled by anyone outside of the immediate family.

“I think our system [in Butler County] is really secure,” Corbin said. “No system is 100% … [but] when we see an issue, it usually comes down to a voter’s confusion over listening to national media, regardless of whether it’s left or right media, and getting different rules from different states mixed up.”

patelou@miamioh.edu