OH-15 campaigns mum on post-election GOTV

Voters in the 15th Congressional District can no longer cast ballots, but that doesn’t mean get-out-the-vote efforts are necessarily over.
 
About 1,500 voters have been notified by the Franklin County Board of Elections that they need to correct errors on their absentee ballots or else have them invalidated. To fix errors such as missing signatures, Social Security or driver’s license numbers, voters need to come to the elections board, said board of elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli.
 
That doesn’t mean campaigns are leaving the election’s result up to voters alone as Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) is 393 votes behind Steve Stivers (R-Columbus).
 
Piscitelli said the Kilroy campaign gave the board of elections a list of four homebound voters and asked the board if it could bring their information to the board to correct the absentee ballots. The board asked the secretary of state’s office for advice on how to proceed and was told that these people would still have to come and fix the ballots themselves, Piscitelli said.
 
When both campaigns were asked if they’re offering these absentee voters rides to the board office to correct errors, both declined to spill the beans.
 
“With Senator Stivers’ lead being at 393 votes, we’re making every effort to ensure that every eligible vote for Steve is being counted. I don’t want to get down more into the weeds that that,” Stivers press secretary Rob Nichols said.
 
Kilroy Communications Director Brad Bauman said the campaign wants those who voted provisional ballots to call the secretary of state’s Voting Rights Institute.
 
"We are committed to ensuring that every single vote gets counted. That is why we are urging voters who may have filled out provisional ballots to call 1-877-868-3874 to make sure their voice is heard in this historic election,” Bauman said.
 
About 27,000 provisional ballots were received by the elections board, Piscitelli said. People vote these ballots when there are questions about their registration, and some may be ineligible when the board counts them beginning Nov. 15.
 
Those who’ve been notified by the elections board that their absentee ballots have problems have until Friday, Nov. 14 to correct the errors. As of Monday, 160 people corrected their ballots, Piscitelli said.