Election 2020: Can you change ballot after voting?

Answer: Yes. Precinct polling locations in Ohio will be open on Election Day from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.

But you may find your polling location has changed, especially if you haven’t voted in a while.

It’s always good to double check your polling location by going to your county’s Board of Elections website and navigating to the poll tracker to find your Election Day voting site by either entering your name or address, said Jan Kelly, Montgomery County Board of Elections director.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there may have been a change to your Election Day polling location, particularly if you were used to voting in past elections at a nursing home or senior residential facility.

In Montgomery County, notices to voters of Election Day precinct polling location changes were mailed out Friday.

“We send them out kind of late in the game because we don’t want them to get lost with the refrigerator magnets,” Kelly said.

Question: I placed my completed absentee ballot in the election box and the ballot tracker doesn’t show it as received. Is my ballot lost?

Answer: This question accounts for many voter emails to election officials, Kelly said. But she advises voters to stay patient.

Usually by the time a county’s election board responds to a voter’s email, their ballot has shown up as received in the ballot tracker.

“It’s not an instantaneous thing. It takes up to 36 hours for us to get through the process of receiving the ballot,” she said.

Voters can track their absentee ballot applications and the status of their mail-in ballots on their county’s board of elections website. A link to each county’s tracking page can be found on the Secretary of State’s website at: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/ballot-tracking/.

Question: Can I change my ballot after already voting?

Answer: If you make a mistake during the process of voting, you can request additional ballots up to a total of three. But in Ohio, you can’t change your ballot after it’s turned in at an early in-person voting site or placed in the mail.

“Once they lick the envelope and send it in, it’s done,” Kelly said.