(Columbus, OH, Thursday, April 16, 2020) – Ohio’s election is on April 28 after being rescheduled from March 17 over concerns about COVID-19. For the first time ever, this election will be almost 100% by mail.

The week of April 13, Ohio voting advocates will launch a new text campaign to tens of thousands of voters in Ohio to educate them about the changes in voting this year. The campaign will encourage Ohioans to turn in their ballots if they have received one.

Voter turnout may be down compared to the 2016 primary as voters do not know when voting has been rescheduled and how to use the vote-by-mail system.

Voters need to obtain a vote-by-mail ballot and mail it back so it has a postmark date of April 27 or earlier.

Many boards of elections have been inundated with requests for ballots, with one reporting it is taking seven to ten days to process these requests. Mail is slow as well, with each piece of mail taking three to five days to reach the voter or the board of elections.

Here are some events taking place the week of April 13:

• Tuesday, April 14: Turn Up Tuesday Facebook Live Event, All Voting is Local and others will speak with Ohio residents who experienced difficulty casting ballots before the primary was changed to April 28th. Participants: Mike Brickner, All Voting is Local Ohio State Director & Ashley Allison, EVP of Campaigns and Programs at The Leadership Conference.
• Wednesday, April 15: 7:30 – 8:30 p.m., All Voting is Local is hosting a Tele-Town Hall for 150,000 Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo residents. Speakers: Sam Sylk, Ohio, DJ – Moderator, Tom Roberts, NAACP-Ohio President, Danielle Sydnor, NAACP-Cleveland President, Erika Anthony, co-founder, Cleveland Votes, Mike Brickner, Ohio State Director, All Voting is Local.
• Thursday, April 16: 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., League of Women Voters is hosts Virtual Statehouse Day Event, Learn about next steps in implementing anti-gerrymandering reforms that were passed by voters in 2015 and 2018, as well as ways to modernize Ohio’s voter registration system.

All Voting is Local Ohio is the first advocacy group to reach voters in the pipeline by texting and calling nearly 500,000 people in 2018 and 2019. The Ohio team is on the ground with solutions and advocacy focused on three priorities: fighting wrongful purges while advocating for reforms such as Automatic Voter Registration, traveling statewide to train advocates and empowering voters at Ohio’s Historical Black Colleges and Universities to know their rights at the polls.