CHAMPAIGN COUNTY — A Champaign County family says it has not received an absentee ballot for their out-of-town college student, despite hand-delivering a request form to the Board of Elections weeks ago.
Stacy Wilson says her daughter, Mackensee, goes to Bowling Green, about two hours from their home in Mechanicsburg, and wanted to vote absentee to avoid driving home. Wilson says her husband took Mackensee’s absentee request form to the Board of Elections in Urbana last month, and handed it to a worker there.
“She was on the other side of the desk,” Wilson said. “He handed it to her, she took it and he walked back out.”
But weeks later, no sign of a ballot for Mackensee.
Wilson said she called the Board of Elections Thursday, and found out the office had no record of Mackensee’s absentee ballot request. She said the office recommended Mackensee come home to vote in person, at this stage in the election cycle.
“It’s a major frustration for me because I don’t understand how this is happening,” Wilson told News Center 7′s Sean Cudahy in an interview from her Mechanicsburg porch Thursday evening.
News Center 7 reached out to the Champaign County Board of Elections Thursday night. Director Meredith Bodey reiterated to Cudahy, the office does not have a record of this request form.
“It’s been a crazy time for all of us and no one seems to remember taking it or seeing it,” Bodey said, adding, “I apologize if we lost it…if we misplaced it somewhere…I just don’t know.”
That reaction did not sit well with Wilson.
“I have a problem with that. Working America is tired. People in healthcare are tired,” Wilson said. “And you take on this role to help people with one of their rights as American citizens. And if you’re tired now, we have a problem, because we’re days away (from Election Day).”
Thursday night a spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office told WHIO it “will work with Champaign County to review the situation.”
In the meantime, Mackensee is making plans with her family to return home to Champaign County to vote, despite her class schedule.
Wilson said it shouldn’t have to be like this.
“The way I see it, we were going out of our way to make sure her vote got counted. And the people who are supposed to ensure us that right are tired, or just don’t care about one simple piece of paper,” she said. “Well, one simple piece of paper is one vote that can change everything.”
Cox Media Group
