When it comes to voting in the November midterm elections, the most important thing to know right now, the director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said, is that nothing has changed since you voted in May.
“There are no changes,” said Anthony Perlatti, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. “You can still vote by mail, vote early in person, vote at the polls. The ID that you need to show when you go to vote is the same ID you’ve been showing since 2024."
Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day.
Perlatti said Tuesday he believed the Supreme Court of the United States got it right this week by declining to allow the USPS to carry out parts of a new rule on mail-in voting, keeping mail-in voting in play, which accounts for about 25%-30% of the vote in Cuyahoga County.
“Your voice matters,” said Perlatti. “Your vote is your voice. That is one of the ways in which you can communicate change within your communities.”
He said the day is a call to action to make sure you’re registered to vote and that your voter registration is up to date.
Perlatti said about 900,000 people are registered to vote in Cuyahoga County, but not everyone is registered at their current address. He encouraged everyone to make sure their voter registration information is current.
You can also visit the Ohio Secretary of State’s website or your local county Board of Elections page to check your voter status and information.
The Cuyahoga County BOE kicked off its voter empowerment and education campaign this week called Know Before You Vote.
They will have information tables set up at public libraries and rec centers helping people register to vote, get a mail-in ballot, understand the process, and more.
“To register to vote in Ohio, you must be a U.S. citizen, you must be at least 18 years of age by Election Day, and you must be a resident of Ohio for at least 30 days prior to Election Day,” said Perlatti.
The goal of the education and outreach campaign is also to make the process transparent, he said, so people can continue to trust the integrity and security of casting a ballot here at home.
The voter registration deadline for the Nov. 3 midterm election is Monday, Oct. 5. Absentee voting begins Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Perlatti spoke at Rid-All Green Partnership, an urban farm in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood, to illustrate community empowerment, likening it to voting and what can happen when you engage and participate to make your community better.
David Hester, the farm’s horticulturist lovingly known as Mr. Green Hand, spoke at the event.
He encouraged people to visit the farm at 8129 Otter Ave. and see what they have to offer, as they’ve grown from one acre to 19 acres.
“It just shows that if you bring people together, have an opportunity to commune with one another, then you can really make things happen,” said Hester.
He also encouraged people to register to vote.
“Please go out and vote because your votes make a difference,” said Hester.
Is this vote-by-mail application legit?
Also, on Tuesday, I asked Perlatti about vote-by-mail applications being sent by mail.
In Ohio, in even-year November elections, said Perlatti, the state funds the Ohio Secretary of State to send a vote-by-mail application to all registered voters.
He said that happened this year around Labor Day, with some still arriving in mailboxes right now.
“Those are legitimate applications,” said Perlatti.
He said it’ll have the Ohio Secretary of State’s letterhead, include a return envelope, include instructions, and include the form.
“It will have your name and residential address pre-printed on it,” Perlatti said, adding that it also includes a barcode.
“We are encouraging voters to use that,” Perlatti said about the form.
He said this application automatically shows up if you’re a registered voter. You didn’t have to request it.
And he said there’s an important distinction.
“It is not a ballot,” said Perlatti. “A lot of people think it is a ballot; it is not.”
On the application sent by the secretary of state’s office that already has your name pre-printed, your address on there, Perlatti said, “You need to put down your date of birth; you need to provide a form of identification which is either your driver’s license number, your state ID number, and on a vote-by-mail application you can put the last four digits of your Social Security.”
He said that is the only method of voting in which the last four digits of your Social Security number are still allowable.
“And then you sign it, send it back to us, we’ll process it and make sure everything is accurate and correct and then starting October 6th we’ll send out ballots,” said Perlatti.
He also said about 45,000 voters in Cuyahoga County got an application from a place called the Voter Participation Center.
“That is also a valid application,” said Perlatti.
He said they used the Secretary of State’s form, which is correct, but it has nothing pre-printed on it.
Perlatti said you can use that, but they’d prefer you use the Secretary of State’s or go to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website or call them at (216) 443-8683 (VOTE), and they’ll send you an application.
“When we send you our application it will have again, your name pre-printed, your address on there and will have the barcode,” said Perlatti.
He said the barcode is used for processing.
“When it doesn’t have a barcode, you have to manually enter everything,” said Perlatti.
“One person can input about 50 applications an hour. When there’s a barcode and we scan those, that one person can put in a thousand an hour.”
He said that when they’re anticipating 150,000-plus ballots, the barcode helps.
