President Donald Trump’s suggestion this week that voters should consider voting twice in November raised immediate questions about the ethical, moral and legal consequences of casting two ballots.
But it raised another question, too: How often do people do that?
Turns out, they do it every election, though not in large numbers. An Enquirer analysis of state records for the past three presidential elections found a total of 2,177 Ohioans attempted to vote twice in those elections, about 0.013% of the more than 17 million ballots cast.
In every case, election officials flagged the ballots as potentially problematic and required the voters to cast provisional ballots that would be reviewed after Election Day. The ballots were then discarded after the review confirmed the voters had voted twice.
Election officials say the reason voters cast two ballots varies, but they say it occurs most often because voters are confused, not because they’re trying to game the system.
“We investigate it after every election,” said Sherry Poland, Hamilton County’s elections director. “The vast majority of the time, it is an honest mistake.”
She said some voters mail an absentee ballot a month before the election, forget about it and show up at their normal polling place on Election Day. Others think they need to vote at both their old and new polling places if they moved right before the election.
Caleb Faux, a member of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said many cases involve voters who worry they mailed their absentee ballot too late and decide to vote on Election Day to make sure their vote is counted. In those instances, the provisional ballot wouldn't be counted. Faux said he can't recall any cases of voting twice resulting in criminal charges.
Attempts to commit voter fraud of any kind are rare, state officials say. Between 2012 and 2016, the Ohio secretary of state's office referred 336 cases to prosecutors.
It's not known how many of those involved attempts to cast two ballots, but election officials say the system is built to catch anyone who tries to vote twice, regardless of the reason. The key to the system is the way local boards of elections track voters.
"There are redundancies in place to ensure only one vote will count per individual," said Maggie Sheehan, spokeswoman for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
If someone requests an absentee ballot, the person’s name immediately is flagged as having received the ballot. If that person then shows up on Election Day to vote at a polling place, they are required to cast a provisional ballot that won’t be counted unless the board verifies the voter didn’t also cast an absentee ballot.
The process works in a similar way for in-person voting. If the name, address, signature or some other identifier doesn’t match the voter registration records, the voter will have to cast a provisional ballot, which only will be counted after it’s been vetted by the board after Election Day.
A team made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats reviews the provisional ballots and makes the call.
“The system catches all of this,” Poland said. “It’s why we have provisional voting. It allows the bipartisan teams (of election workers) to sort it out.”
Trump, who has repeatedly challenged the integrity of the nation’s elections and, in particular, voting by mail, suggested Wednesday in North Carolina that voters should test the system by voting both by mail and in person.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote,” Trump said. He doubled down a short time later, telling supporters to “send it in early and then go and vote,” referring to mail-in and in-person voting.
By Thursday, the president tried to clarify that he only meant voters should verify their votes were counted, but election officials across the country were by then scrambling to warn voters against casting two ballots.
Voting twice intentionally in Ohio, as in many states, is a felony punishable by a fine or jail time.
"Ohio voters are encouraged to choose one way to vote," Sheehan said. "Any additional effort to cast a ballot will not be counted and unnecessarily burdens election officials."
Poland said one Hamilton County voter in 2019 did attempt to test the system, though not precisely in the way Trump recommended. She said the voter, who had recently moved, cast a provisional ballot at his new polling place and then went to his old polling place to see if he could vote again.
He received a ballot at his old polling place, Poland said, after giving poll workers his previous address. But even though he didn’t cast the second ballot, he still got caught and was called before the board of elections to explain himself.
If he had cast the second ballot, Poland said, the board would know he’d voted twice from its records and would not have counted the provisional ballot.
Though the system worked, Poland said, she’s worried that if hundreds or thousands of voters take Trump’s advice and try to vote twice, the system might be overwhelmed, straining the board’s ability to vet ballots and slowing the vote count.
“I would advise voters not to do that,” she said.
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