The cost may be higher in the short term, but Belmont County Board of Elections members encourage all county residents to vote absentee prior to Election Day.
Participating in no-excuse absentee voting does provides many advantages to the voter, they said.
"They can sit at home - at their kitchen table - and drink their coffee while they vote," said Frankie Lee Carnes, chairwoman of the board. "Then if they don't understand an issue ... or if there is a contested race and they have questions about where the candidates stand ... they can take the time and go find out more."
Article Photos
Photo by Joselyn King
Belmont County Board of Elections members Cynthia Fregiato, left, and Lee Horsfall are among those encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots by mail.
Ann Block, former Monroe County deputy director of elections is now a field representative for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office. She said it is just more convenient for voters to be able to mark their ballots at their own time and place.
"You can do a column a day if you want to," she said."I know my mother says she feels hurried when she goes to the polls. She wants to take the time to read what is on the ballot.
"You can vote at your own convenience," Block added. "What if you have a meeting or something else comes up for you on Election Day?"
Fact Box
Applications to obtain an absentee ballot now are available at the Belmont County Board of Elections office, located at Plaza West in St. Clairsville. Those interested should call 740-526-0188. The form also can be printed from the elections board's Web site at
belmontcountyboe.googlepages.com.
Absentee ballots also include an advantage for elections officials.
The ballots can be scanned and processed - though not tabulated - as much as 10 days before an election.
"We can control the process better," said Belmont County Board of Elections member Cynthia Fregiato. "If there are 700 voters in a precinct - and we've already received 350 ballots from there - we know we can expect only 350 more."
Brunner proposed earlier this year that all Ohio elections be conducted by mail - a suggestion that has yet to be acted upon by the Ohio General Assembly.
Elections officials point out that as the cost of holding elections steadily increases, total costs would decrease if the state would go to a total vote-by-mail system.
But until that happens, counties are required to open polls and hire poll workers - two Democrats and two Republicans - for each polling precinct. In Belmont County, there are 69 precincts and the need to hire 276 poll workers.
There is also a need to both print optical scan ballots and program touch-screen voting devices in the county, as both systems are utilized.
Absentee voting - done completely by optical scan ballot - also involves the printing of optical scan ballots, as well as the costs to mail out ballot applications and the actual ballots. The price for each absentee ballot cast varies depending on the size of the ballot, but elections officials have estimated the average cost at about $3 each.
Voters can avoid the taxpayer cost of mailing back their absentee by returning it in person to the board of elections office, they noted.