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Media and Press Releases
Cuyahoga County Voters Improve In Completing Vote-By-Mail Applications In The 2024 Presidential Election Compared To The 2020 Presidential Election
(Cleveland) – The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (CCBOE) wants to ensure Cuyahoga voters understand the Vote-by-Mail (VBM)
Ballot Application and subsequent VBM Ballot issuance procedures.
A VBM Ballot is not provided to a voter until the CCBOE is in possession of a complete and accurate VBM Ballot Application. To meet this standard the application must contain the voter’s printed name, registration address, date of birth, form of acceptable identification, and signature. All this information is verified against the voter’s profile in the CCBOE’s voter registration database. Exact matches lead to a VBM Ballot being issued to the voter.
When one or more of these fields on the VBM Ballot Application do not match the information on file with the CCBOE, the application is deemed invalid. The CCBOE mails a notice to the voter informing them of the discrepancy and when appropriate provides the voter with a new application and return envelope for submission to the CCBOE. Those voters who include an email address on their application will also receive an electronic notice making them aware of their invalid application. Upon the CCBOE’s receipt of the new VBM Ballot Application, the same data review process occurs with VBM Ballots issued to voters providing complete and accurate information.
In an election like the November 5, 2024 Presidential General Election, the CCBOE expects to receive invalid applications with the most common data mismatch being a voter’s date of birth. This includes the omission of the birth date, or a wrong date that often reflects the date of when the applications are completed or the election date.
Cuyahoga voters are doing much better in 2024 correctly completing their VBM Ballot Applications than they did during the November 2020 Presidential Election. In 2020 the CCBOE received over 38,000 invalid applications for the Presidential Election which accounted for 11% of all applications received. So far in the 2024 Presidential Election the CCBOE has received just over 9,000 invalid applications which account for 5% of all applications received. Of these approximately half have been corrected with a new VBM Ballot Application.
Voters who submit an invalid VBM Ballot Application are still eligible to vote a regular ballot in the November 5th Presidential Election if they choose not to submit a new VBM Ballot Application to the CCBOE. Voters are able to vote a regular ballot during the Early In-Person Voting period or on Election Day.
Voters have many options available to them and the CCBOE is here to help them through these options. VBM Ballot Applications, hours of Early In-Person Voting, and polling location information can all be found on the CCBOE’s website at boe.cuyahogacounty.gov, or by calling 216-443-8683.