Ohio’s GOP presidential primary ballot causes confusion
MANSFIELD – Richland County elections officials say they’ve been bombarded with questions from voters confused by Ohio’s Republican primary ballot.
The ballot appears to give every Republican voter not just one, but two opportunities to vote for president.
Democrats find a single list, choosing delegates in the name of one of three presidential candidates, end of story.
But Republicans first wade through one list of where they must choose delegates-at-large and alternates-at-large under the name of one of 11 presidential candidates.
Then they find with a second list, this time for a choice of “district” delegates and alternates to the national convention, listing 10 candidates’ names.
“We get countless calls on this issue every day,” Richland County Deputy Elections Director Bill Freytag said.
Local elections officials say the quirk results from a change in Republican party by-laws that converted Ohio to a “winner-take-all” state, where before, delegates were apportioned according to voting in each congressional district.
“Unfortunately, the corresponding election law mandating how the delegates are to be listed on the ballot wasn't changed along with the "winner-take-all" conversion,” Richland County Elections Director Paulette Hankins said.
That meant both lists are still showing up on the ballot.
Freytag said Republican voters should be sure to cast votes for the initial list, since that’s the one that counts. “I would stress the importance of voting in the first race in this election, since that race will determine the winner of all the delegates,” he said.
“It's a problem with the Ohio Republican Party bylaws and not a legislative issue,” said Freytag, himself a Republican. “Assuming the party leaves Ohio as a "winner-take-all" state in the future, I would certainly expect them to change their bylaws before 2020 to eliminate the second race by district and eliminate the confusion,” he said.
“The confusion was caused by the changes in the party bylaws but the legislature also should have changed the election law to reflect those changes,” Freytag said.
Hankins noted this was not the first presidential election cycle where the quirk has appeared.
Bonnie Oleksa of the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party said she became aware of the confusion in Ohio’s presidential primary after she was emailed a link to a You Tube video.
“Voters could think they are being given two options for president,” Oleska said. “The two boxes are confusing because they raise obvious questions.”
“Do voters get two votes? Can conflicted voters split their vote, or do votes for two candidates cancel each other out? If only one of the two boxes is filled in, does the person's vote still count?“ she asked.
While the ballot format may not be new, Oleksa said the issue is “more confusing this year because there are so many presidential candidates, some of whom have pulled out of the race but still remain on the ballot.”
“While both races will be tallied by the 88 boards of elections throughout the State, only the first race, which is the statewide, will be considered by the Republican Party in the assigning of delegates,” she said.
Not as many delegates for presidential candidate appear on the second list because not all candidates' delegates submitted petitions to the state, she said.
While the Republican ballot in Ohio still lists 11 at-large presidential candidates and up to 10 district-level candidates, only four — billionaire Donald Trump, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Gov. John Kasich — remain in the race.
Josh Eck, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jon Husted, said signs indicating the names of withdrawn candidates are prominently displayed at polling places.
But that attempt at clearing the confusion also has a caveat: Only candidates who withdrew before the state’s Feb. 5 deadline set to accommodate early voting that’s already underway will be posted. That’s just one guy, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Eck said.
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