FREMONT, Ohio — Sandusky County voters are in the final stretch of early voting, with the county Board of Elections open this weekend before polls open across the county on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Early in-person voting runs at the Sandusky County Board of Elections, 2020 Countryside Drive in Fremont, through the statewide close of early voting at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, under the Ohio Secretary of State’s uniform early-voting schedule. There is no early voting on Monday, Nov. 2, and Election Day voting runs from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at assigned polling places across the county.
At the top of the county’s local ballot, Sandusky County voters are choosing two county commissioners and weighing a county park district levy, alongside the statewide races — governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer, two Ohio Supreme Court seats and U.S. Senate — and State Issue 3, the proposed photo ID constitutional amendment. School, municipal and township levies and races fill out ballots in communities including Fremont, Bellevue, Clyde and Gibsonburg, according to the Board of Elections’ sample ballots.
The board publishes sample ballots for every precinct on its website, and election officials urge voters to review theirs before heading out — ballot styles differ by precinct, and a few minutes with the sample ballot is the surest way to avoid a surprise in the voting booth.
Absentee voters who still hold a mailed ballot face a hard deadline: ballots must be postmarked by Monday, Nov. 2, or returned in person to the Board of Elections office by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. Voters who requested an absentee ballot but decide to vote in person on Election Day will be asked to cast a provisional ballot, the standard safeguard under Ohio law.
Sandusky County’s early-voting lines have been a familiar sight in Fremont through October, as voters across Ohio take advantage of the state’s multi-week early window. Sunday afternoon is traditionally one of the busiest early-voting sessions of the cycle, and the board’s 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday hours are the last chance to bank a ballot before Tuesday.
What happens next: after early voting closes Sunday at 5 p.m., the board turns to Election Day — polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. — and then to the unofficial count Tuesday night, with certification of the county’s results to follow in the days after the election.