Update: Voters Won't Get Absentee Applications by Mail

Cuyahoga County officials, who last week said they would continue to mail out applications for absentee ballots to all voters, now say they will not following a compromise with the state.

People in Strongsville and other communities will still be able to vote absentee this November, but they will have to seek out an application -- it won't come in the mail.

Strongsville  voting by mail. 

In the Aug. 2 special election, 8,643 of the 10,991 ballots cast were absentee -- about 79 percent -- according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Superintendent Jeff Lampert found similar numbers in the May primary election, when he said about 8,000 of the 11,000 ballots cast were absentee.

"It puts a different spin on things now," Council President Mike Daymut said. "I think elections are decided a lot sooner than they were in the past."

Cuyahoga County Council voted last week to override opposition from Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and support County Executive Ed FitzGerald's decision to continue mailing the applications.

But FitzGerald and Husted reached a compromise late last week in which Cuyahoga County will not mail out applications for the November general election. In return, Husted promised to mail out applications to voters in all 88 counties for the 2012 presidential election.

The battle began when Husted said boards of elections can no longer mass-mail absentee applications to all voters in the county. 

FitzGerald said fine -- another county department would do the mailings and pick up the tab for postage.

After controversy over elections in 2004 and 2006, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections started to mail absentee ballot request forms to all registered voters, hoping to streamline the process and make voting easier.