Big delays on absentee ballots causing concern for voters in Miami County

MIAMI COUNTY — Voters in a local county are experiencing delays while waiting for their absentee ballots.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, some Miami County voters were receiving their ballots nearly a week late.

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A few people told News Center 7 that they got tired of waiting, so they went to the courthouse to cast their votes.

“The ballots did get out a little bit later than we would have liked,” Miami County Board of Elections Director Laura Bruns said.

News Center 7 looked into voting numbers and noticed the county’s return rate on their absentee ballots was lower than other counties in the Miami Valley.

Miami County’s return rate was 30%, while every other county is higher than 40%.

“We were concerned because we started hearing from voters that weren’t receiving their ballots. We reached out to our election mail coordinator,” Bruns said.

Bruns said they were using Election IQ, a third-party vendor, to mail absentee ballots from Akron.

The vendor is responsible for multiple counties. News Center 7 was told they became overwhelmed with the number of requests and fell behind.

Once realizing there was a problem, the Miami County Board of Elections stepped in quickly.

“When we realized that things were delayed, we decided to just go ahead and start handling those in-house,” Bruns said.

Board of Elections Deputy Director Christina Panagouleas-Stephens said they’ve been making progress since the change.

“We’ve been hearing from voters less and less. So that’s a good indication that things are happening the way they’re supposed to,” she said.

Voters who are still waiting for an absentee ballot are asked to reach out to the Board of Elections to sort through any issues.

Those who have previously requested a ballot, but now want to vote in person, are asked to do that during early voting, which ends on Nov. 3.

News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.

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