Defiance County voters head to their precinct polling places on Tuesday, Nov. 3, after early in-person voting ended at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s voting schedule. There is no early voting on Monday, Nov. 2, and polls on Election Day will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to the Secretary of State. The Defiance County Board of Elections is at 1300 E. Second St., Suite 103, in Defiance, and can be reached at 419-782-8543, according to the board’s listing in the Secretary of State’s county boards directory.
Voters who still hold a vote-by-mail ballot must get it to the Board of Elections by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day for it to count, according to the Secretary of State. Under Ohio’s newer return rule in Senate Bill 293, most absentee ballots no longer have a post-Election Day grace period — they must be received by the close of polls — and Secretary of State Frank LaRose said on Oct. 27 that it might already be too late to mail a ballot and have it arrive in time, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The Dispatch’s statewide drop-off list gives the same Defiance County address, 1300 E. Second St., Suite 103, for in-person ballot return. Military and overseas voters are the exception to the Election Day receipt rule, according to the Secretary of State.
On Election Day, Defiance County voters must vote at their assigned precinct polling place and bring an accepted photo ID — an Ohio driver license or state ID card, a U.S. passport or passport card, or a U.S. military or veterans ID card with name and photograph — according to the Ohio Secretary of State. A voter without an accepted ID may vote a provisional ballot and present valid ID to the board within four days after Election Day for it to count, according to statewide Secretary of State guidance.
Every Defiance County ballot carries the statewide races — governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer, the two Supreme Court seats and U.S. senator — along with State Issue 3, the proposed constitutional amendment on voter photo ID, congressional and state legislative races, and local questions that vary by community, according to the Secretary of State.
The best-known local question is the library levy covered in NewsForce247’s first-pass Defiance County story. The Defiance Public Library is asking voters to approve a 1.65-mill, 35-year levy, an increase of 0.9 mills from the levy the library says has been in place for more than two decades, according to the Ohio Library Council’s summary of November library proposals, reported by the Columbus Navigator and by the Stark County District Library.
Sample ballots for each Defiance County precinct are available through the Board of Elections and the Secretary of State’s voter lookup, and voters can confirm their registration and polling place before leaving home. Anyone in line by 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday has the right to vote, according to statewide guidance.
What happens next is Election Day itself. The Defiance County Board of Elections will report unofficial results through Tuesday evening from Defiance, and NewsForce247 will follow Defiance County’s returns — including the library levy — as part of its Election Night coverage.