Lucas County Officials Unsure If Absentee Ballots Have Been Mailed

[OhioTim]

Source: Toledo Blade

Ohio county can't contact ballot vendor.

Read more: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/politics/2020/10/12/lucas-county-absentee-ballots-delayed-by-vendor/stories/20201012097

[List left]

1. A couple of paragraphs would be nice instead of link behind paywall

[stillcool]

6. here's one with a link..

but the issue seems to have been resolved

Lucas County Board of Elections: 5,705 absentee ballots were mailed out last week, with full batch expected in the mail Wednesday
Director LaVera Scott says more than 60,000 requests for absentee ballots were received and should be completely mailed out to voters by Oct. 14.
There was some confusion on Monday. Scott explained the board reached out to the vendor last week when their website showed all of the absentee ballots had been mailed.

Scott said she wasn't certain that number was accurate and she was right. She said the board could not immediately reach the vendor Friday or Saturday.

A representative called Monday afternoon and confirmed that 5,705 absentee ballots had been mailed and the rest would be done by mid-week this week.

Scott says the board mailed out absentee ballots itself for the presidential primary in March. She said board members worked 12-hour days and six-day weeks to finish mailing the 40,000 absentee ballots for that election.

https://www.wtol.com/article/news/politics/campaign-2020/lucas-county-absentee-ballots-mailing-out-wednesday-oct-14/512-e686a37b-1192-4574-93e0-d4761871ce29

[OneBro]

2. From the link:

Nearly 70,000 Lucas County residents hope to vote by mail in the November election, but county elections officials on Monday were unsure if absentee ballots had actually been mailed to any of them because the vendor contracted to print and send them has stopped responding to requests for an update.

(snip)

On Tuesday, the first day absentee ballots could legally be sent out, the Board of Elections reported that they had sent 62,259 processed ballot applications to Midwest Direct, a Cleveland company that prints, stuffs, and mails ballots to voters in 20 Ohio counties. Since then, Lucas County has sent an additional 4,483 applications. Elections board Director LaVera Scott said Monday that the board has processed all of the applications they have received so far, but has been unable to get a confirmation from Midwest Direct as to how many ballots have been actually mailed out.

(snip)

Now it appears that the vendor is labeling ballots as mailed in an online tracking system, even though those ballots have only been uploaded into the Midwest Direct system, Ms. Scott said. “Processed is one thing. Inserted in the mail is a whole other thing. Putting it actually in the mail is the final step.”

[Ellipsis]

4. Some more... 5,705 ballots were mailed out last week, with full batch expected in the mail Wednesday

Director LaVera Scott says more than 60,000 requests for absentee ballots were received and should be completely mailed out to voters by Oct. 14.

https://www.wtol.com/article/news/politics/campaign-2020/lucas-county-absentee-ballots-mailing-out-wednesday-oct-14/512-e686a37b-1192-4574-93e0-d4761871ce29

[idziak4ever1234]

3. I'm not OP, but I think I was able to get the story...

Lucas County officials unsure if absentee ballots have been mailed

Nearly 70,000 Lucas County residents hope to vote by mail in the November election, but county elections officials on Monday were unsure if absentee ballots had actually been mailed to any of them because the vendor contracted to print and send them has stopped responding to requests for an update.

On Tuesday, the first day absentee ballots could legally be sent out, the Board of Elections reported that they had sent 62,259 processed ballot applications to Midwest Direct, a Cleveland company that prints, stuffs, and mails ballots to voters in 20 Ohio counties. Since then, Lucas County has sent an additional 4,483 applications.

Elections board Director LaVera Scott said Monday that the board has processed all of the applications they have received so far, but has been unable to get a confirmation from Midwest Direct as to how many ballots have been actually mailed out.

Absentee ballots slow to arrive in Lucas County

Once the Board of Elections processes and audits absentee ballot applications, they send a PDF file with mailing information to Midwest Direct. The company then prints the ballots and mails them. But now it appears that the vendor is labeling ballots as mailed in an online tracking system, even though those ballots have only been uploaded into the Midwest Direct system, Ms. Scott said.

“We want to make sure we’re on the same page,” she said. “Processed is one thing. Inserted in the mail is a whole other thing. Putting it actually in the mail is the final step.”

Midwest Direct CEO Richard Gebbie told the Akron Beacon Journal on Thursday that the first round of printing wouldn’t be ready for the U.S. Postal Service to pick up and deliver until Monday evening.

In addition to a high volume of requests, Mr. Gebbie said that there have been mechanical issues with some of the printing machines, the Journal reported.

Midwest Direct did not respond to The Blade’s request for comment.

The Board of Elections has previously mailed out absentee ballots themselves, but with the onset of the pandemic, they anticipated a greater influx of absentee ballot applications and decided to outsource. Ms. Scott said that, even with 20 people, her office would only have been able to process approximately, 3,500 ballots per day. Midwest Direct was contracted to speed up that process.

Ms. Scott said that the county has yet to pay Midwest Direct for their services. Payment will be made at the project’s completion, she said, though she did not offer how much the services would cost.

A ballot box on a counter prepared for early voting at the Warren County Board of Elections, in Lebanon, Ohio. Ohio and Republican groups including the Trump campaign are defending a GOP election chief's directive limiting ballot drop boxes in the critical presidential battleground to one per county.

[csziggy]

5. Non paywall story

Lucas County Board of Elections: 5,705 absentee ballots were mailed out last week, with full batch expected in the mail Wednesday
Director LaVera Scott says more than 60,000 requests for absentee ballots were received and should be completely mailed out to voters by Oct. 14.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Lucas County Board of Elections confirms 5,705 absentee ballots were mailed out last week and the full batch of more than 60,000 requested by voters should be sent by Wednesday, Oct. 14.

The board contracted with a third-party vendor, Midwest Direct, for the print processing of the ballots. Board of Elections Director LaVera Scott says her office sent more than 62,000 applications from voters in Lucas County to the vendor to print and mail on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

There was some confusion on Monday. Scott explained the board reached out to the vendor last week when their website showed all of the absentee ballots had been mailed. Scott said she wasn't certain that number was accurate and she was right. She said the board could not immediately reach the vendor Friday or Saturday.

A representative called Monday afternoon and confirmed that 5,705 absentee ballots had been mailed and the rest would be done by mid-week this week.

More: https://www.wtol.com/article/news/politics/campaign-2020/lucas-county-absentee-ballots-mailing-out-wednesday-oct-14/512-e686a37b-1192-4574-93e0-d4761871ce29

[kimbutgar]

7. It that a minority area of Ohio?

[LisaL]

8. It' a city of Toledo, blue area.

NT

[George II]

9. The Toledo Blade is a conservative media source:

Media Bias Fact Check:

These media sources are slightly to moderately conservative in bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor conservative causes.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/toledo-blade/

[LisaL]

10. I am not sure how that matters if the ballots haven't been send.

It would appear majority of the ballots haven't yet been send.

[George II]

11. The headline is misleading. Only about 6,000 ballots were involved and all of the ballots....

....have been accounted for already. The remaining weren't scheduled to go out until Oct. 14.

The article was published today, AFTER the Lucas County officials cleared up the issue.

As noted, The Blade "often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor conservative causes", i.e., the trump campaign.

[LisaL]

12. That's not how I interpret it.

Vendor labeled all 60,000 ballots as being mailed. Turns out only 6,000 were mailed, the rest will be mailed by Wednesday.
County wasn't able to get in contact with the vendor for several days to figure out how many ballots were mailed.

[George II]

14. But everything mentioned in the article appears to be a week old even though it was published today.

[murielm99]

13. So go vote early or vote on election day.

Just VOTE.

[lonely bird]

15. Once again my state...

Steps on its Johnson.

From the state legislator that wants to have DeWine arrested to Gym Jordan we sure do have our share of idiots.