Ohio's boards of elections work year round to ensure that our elections are secure and that every vote gets counted.

 

After the polls close on Election Day, election workers do an unofficial canvas of the votes, processing and tabulating valid votes, which are then reported to the Ohio Secretary of State's office. These are summary reports and will not be identical to final election results. After the deadline for curing provisional ballots and accepting valid mail-in ballots that were postmarked on or before the day before the election has passed (4 days after Election Day), county boards of elections begin their the official canvas. In this period, boards will reconcile results with records from the poll books and voter registration system to ensure that only one vote per voter is counted.

 

Once their official canvas is complete, boards then certify their results and submit their report totals to the Ohio Secretary of State. County boards issue certificates of election to local candidates who won in their county, whereas the Ohio Secretary of State issues certificates of election to winning candidates for statewide office, U.S. Congress, and the state board of education. The exception would be any races with vote totals that automatically trigger the recount process or races in which a candidate has requested a recount.

 

All of this must happen before the meeting of the electors in December, where each state's electors meet in their respective states to publicly record their votes for the President and Vice President. These electoral votes are then sent to Washington D.C. and received by the President of the Senate and the Archivist of the U.S. On January 6, Congress will hold a joint-session to count the votes, presided over by the sitting Vice President. The President and Vice President are sworn in on Inauguration Day, which always begins at noon on January 20th.

 

Key Dates in Ohio's Post-Election Calendar in 2024 

November 9: Last day for boards of elections to cure provisional ballots and count valid absentee ballots that were postmarked by November 4th 

November 11: Boards of election must start the official canvas of the 2024 General Election

November 20: Boards of election must compete their official canvas of the 2024 General Election 

December 17: Ohio's presidential electors meet to record and send Ohio's electoral votes to Washington

January 6: U.S. Congress holds joint session to count the electoral votes
January 22: Presidential Inauguration 

See Ohio's full 2024 Election Calendar here