Reps. Mallory & Reece Call for Provisional Ballot Envelope Corrections

CINCINNATI – State Reps. Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati) and Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati) announced today that they are calling for changes to be made to provisional ballot envelopes in order to eliminate deceptive language. Currently, there is a line on the back of the envelope that reads, “Failure to complete this form will not cause your provisional ballot to be rejected.” However, thousands of votes in the last presidential election were rejected because of minor errors on provisional ballots.

“The line on the back of provisional ballot envelopes is misleading and inaccurate,” Rep. Mallory said. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of votes were not counted as a result of failure to complete the provisional ballot form. Changes must be made to rectify this significant error.”

Yesterday, Ohio House Republicans approved elections legislation that would require even more information to be detailed on a provisional ballot in order for it to count.                                                                                                             

“Ohio throws out a significant number of provisional ballots every election year, and this deceptive language is part of the problem,” said Rep. Reece. “We should make it as easy as possible for Ohioans to have their voices heard and their votes counted.”

Rep. Mallory and Rep. Reece are calling for this problem to be corrected before the primary election on May 6, 2014.