Kurt Young

10/09/2026

🗳️ OHIO VOTERS: DO YOU HAVE YOUR PLAN TO VOTE?

Early voting has started, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026!

After 14 years as a Board of Elections observer and seven years serving on the Lucas County Board of Elections, I've learned two important things:

Our elections are carefully protected by bipartisan teams, and the best way to make sure your vote counts is to know the rules before you vote!

So I've put together a video explaining what every Ohio voter should know.

We'll talk about:

✅ Voting by mail, early in person, or on Election Day
✅ Important absentee ballot deadlines
✅ Where to find your polling place
✅ Photo ID requirements
✅ How to preview your ballot before voting
✅ What to do if you are told you need a provisional ballot
✅ Voting accommodations for people with disabilities
✅ How to correct a mistake on your ballot
✅ What to do if someone interferes with your ability to vote
✅ Why election night results are NOT the final official results

And yes, I'll explain why polling places sometimes move. Believe it or not, we even lost one to pickleball lessons!

I'll also discuss several statewide and local ballot issues.

A few important dates:

📅 October 27 — Deadline for absentee ballot applications to reach your county Board of Elections (but remember our Postal Service in Toledo is a mess 3-14 days to be transmitted by mail).

📅 November 3 — Election Day! Polls are open from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM.

📬 November 3, 7:30 PM — Deadline for most absentee ballots to be received by your Board of Elections, not at a polling place, at the drop box or in our hands.

Lucas County voters can find information at:

🌐 www.lucascountyohiovotes.gov

Regardless of who you're voting for, please make a plan, exercise your rights, and GET OUT AND VOTE!

And please SHARE this video with your friends, family, and neighbors. Let's help everyone make sure their vote counts!

Ballot-issue opinions expressed in the video are my personal views, not official positions of the Lucas County Board of Elections.



https://youtu.be/9HhZ5xHN6Zk?si=U4Xp3r1X0HBN-cXh

10/07/2026

Decide when and how you want to vote. If you want vote by mail, clock is ticking. Request has to he in our hands at BOE in 10 days and Toledo mail goes up to Michigan and back down. At this point better to drop the request off at drop box or at BOE Counter.

And all vote by mail ballots, except folks voting overseas have to be back at BOE by 7:30 PM on Election Day, without exception. That is new for 2026, sorry. Again drop box.

If you plan on voting early at the Early Vote Center EVC), check the hours it is open, they very and get later at night and add weekend at the end. There is no early voting on the Monday before the election, sorry.

Whether you are going to vote at the EVC or your polling place go look at your photo ID, make sure it won’t expire before the day you plan to vote. Go fix that if it will expire first. Contrary to GOP myths we have a photo ID requirement and no need to add more. Vote No on Issue 3. Not good to put bad ideas into Ohio Constitution.

If you plan on voting on Election Day, go to a .gov website, either www.lucascountyohiovotes.gov and the voter page or voterlookup.ohiosos.gov/voterlookup.aspx and put in your name. Make sure address is right.

It will make sure you know where your polling place is, they move. If you go on the BOE one you can see a mock up of your ballot so you can decide how to vote in advance.

Be prepared, long ballot with many issues. Paper ballot is 2 double sided pages in every precinct in Lucas County and that becomes 3 in Maumee.

Please consider voting yes on the Toledo, Maumee and Oregon Charter changes on elections. They are changes to make the city compliant with state or federal law and we at the BOE asked for them.

If you go to vote and they tell you that you can’t vote a regular ballot, find out why. If it is because you really already voted and forgot, happens that people forget and if you really did fine, you can’t again.

If it is because you are at the wrong place, please go to the right one. Our poll workers are trained to tell you what is the right one, give you a slip with where to go, and even tell the other polling place you are on the way. Voting at the wrong place will never count.

If you are at the right place and there are other issues, like we sent you an absentee ballot and you didn’t get it, vote provisionally. If you follow the instructions and do what they say, so long as absentee doesn’t show up, that one will count.

If you are having transportation issues, call 419 Vote Now and a nonpartisan organization will provide free door to door transportation for free.

Democracy is use it or lose it.

10/05/2026

Tick tock . . ., well we won’t finish that one for professionalism’s sake. But Samuel L. Jackson aka Darius is right about one thing, time is not on your side.

You have less than 9 hours to fix your voter registration in Ohio for November’s election. Go to a .gov website and check if it is correct. If not your county BOE is open late tonight to 9 PM.

But you must have changes done in and in hand today, not mailed, not done online, printed and mailed. In our hands The Lucas County Board of Elections by 9 PM.

So the clock is ticking, go fix it now.

10/01/2026

Right now!

Right now, go to the Ohio SOS or your local BOE website, make sure you go to a .gov site. Other ones are not official and some have been accused of harvesting info.

Check you are registered under your current name and address. If not you have to 9 PM Monday 10/5/26 to get fixing it done in Ohio.

Then get out your ID, look at date of birth and name make sure it matches the voter rolls. If not, fix it now. Won’t vote a regular ballot if it doesn’t and you will have 4 days to fix it post election or won’t count at all (new rule for 2026).

Finally got that ID out anyway so go check the expiration date. Make sure it will not expire before the date you plan on voting. If so go get that fixed, can’t take a voter ID if expired, sorry.

Oh and while you are doing all that, a gentle reminder to vote yes in Maumee, Oregon and Toledo for the charter changes on elections and NO on State Issue 3.

Why on each of those? Maumee & Oregon have dates for their primary that are incompatible with all other cities in our region. And you the taxpayers of those cities get charged extra if we have to hold one. Toledo has weird, out of date, requirements that make elections less accessible for candidates and harder to run, this fixes that.

And State Issue 3, well, remember all those things above about checking your ID? We already have a voter ID law, it is going nowhere, both parties support voter ID by huge margins, and ours is current (2026 vintage see the image as to the new & current ID law).

Issue 3 is an attempt by election deniers to put a bad law that was not enacted into the state constitution.

It doesn’t make elections more secure, makes your identity less secure, and worse makes it so if better ID forms come along, we won’t be able to take them without amending the Ohio Constitution.

Democracy is use it or lose it. If you don’t vote, they make us strip your registration. While no one knows who you voted for/against, anyone can find out if you voted or not. And there are a good number of politicians who will listen closer to a voter than a non-voter.

And if you don’t know who I am because someone reposted this, well I am 45 year veteran of political campaigns, with a degree that is essentially campaign and interest group management, who was a county party chairman, past member of the state executive committee, and for the last 22 years either an election observer or Board of Elections member, making sure that they are run right.

09/30/2026

In Ohio it is six days to the start of early voting. So it is five days to the voter registration deadline.

Go, right now to the Ohio Secretary of State Website or your local County Board of Elections Website and check you are registered, with your current name, at your current address, and that Date of birth and other info correct and match your state issued ID. Oh and why you are looking at the ID make sure all info on it is correct and it will not have expired before the day you plan vote.

As on 11:50 AM on 9/30/26 you have 5 days 9 hours and 10 minutes to fix all that and vote a regular ballot.

09/28/2026

Please consider joining our team.

09/22/2026

Thanks to the League of Women Voters for having us join you all last night

09/18/2026

We're coming up on the end of voter registration and the beginning of Early Voting in Ohio.

Before October 5th, check to make sure you are registered to vote with your current name and preferably your current address and that your information on your Ohio BMV ID (driver's license or state ID) matches your voter registration in the Ohio Secretary of State or your local Board of Elections database.

Also check that ID and make sure won't expire before the day you plan to vote. If it will, fix that now too.

Then make your plan vote, This is from my Board of Elections as far Early Voting Center Hours, but these hours are universal in Ohio. If you're in Lucas County go to our website and check your registration there as it will tell you where your polling place is if you want to vote on Election Day. It will also show you a mock up of all the issues and candidates you can choose from.

Also don't let a ride to the polls be the difference between voting or not. In Northwest Ohio call Toledo Area Jobs with Justice at 419 VOTE NOW or (419) 868-3669 for free, door to door rides to the Early Vote Center, the Drop Box, or your poling place.

Above all else, get out there and vote. Democracy is a use it or lose it thing.

Or to quote my favorite fictional president, Jed Bartlet (The West Wing ), "decisions are made by those who show up or former Texas Governor Ann Richards “If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu.”

09/16/2026

Kurt was a guest for the second time on a local podcast about issues and politics, talking about the 2026 General Election and things that can affect you as a voter in Ohio.

A voter’s guide to avoiding Election Day confusion

09/15/2026

The deadline to register to vote or fix any issues with your voter registration in the state of Ohio for the November election is October 5th by 9 PM.

Today is national voter registration day. So if you know someone who isn't registered to vote, today is a good day to remind them to get registered.

If you are registered to vote in Lucas County Ohio, do something for myself and my fellow Board of Elections Members, go to our website to our voter information page and check your registration right now:

https://lookup.boe.ohio.gov/vtrapp/lucas/vtrlookup.aspx #

Make sure you registration is current. Check your name, it is your name on your ID documents? If not fix that. If you address is different than where you live, change that. But go a step further, compare them with the form of photo ID that you will use (and we do already require Photo ID in Ohio). Make sure they match on spelling of your name, date of birth, etc. If not go fix them, now. Otherwise you can't vote a regular ballot.

While you are on a webpage on the voter information screen you can also confirm your poling place's location, yes we sometimes have to move them, no that is not a voter suppression effort, and we do contact you with post cards, etc. But confirm it now if you plan on voting on Election Day.

Soon, you can also see a sample of what your ballot will look like on Election Day, we are finalizing them right now.

You can also check on your absentee ballot request and track it through the process. You can also sign up to be a poll worker.