Voting Absentee? Join the Crowd

When school officials  for the ill-fated levy on the Aug. 2 ballot, they did it in June.

They had to.

If they wanted to grab the attention of nearly 80 percent of the voters, waiting till a couple weeks before the election was way too late.

That's because a huge number of Strongsville residents are voting through the mail by absentee ballot, often checking the boxes a month before Election Day.

In the Aug. 2 special election, 8,643 of the 10,991 ballots cast were absentee -- about 79 percent -- according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Superintendent Jeff Lampert found similar numbers in the May primary election, when he said about 8,000 of the 11,000 ballots cast were absentee.

"It puts a different spin on things now," Council President Mike Daymut said. "I think elections are decided a lot sooner than they were in the past."

Expect to see yard signs popping up early in the November City Council and school board races. Absentee ballots can be turned in after Oct. 4.

Strongsville does not have a law limiting the appearance of campaign signs to 30 days before an election, Daymut said.

The number of absentee voters has been creeping upward in the last two years, ever since Ohio stopped demanding excuses for voting by mail and opened absentee ballotting to everyone.

Daymut, who is not opposed in his re-election bid this year, said he expectes candidates to get their campaigns in high gear in September.

"I think a lot of races are going to already be decided a month before the election," he said.