S2 Ep58: That's So Cincinnati: Frank LaRose on what you need to know about voting and Election Day

How many outstanding absentee ballots will still need to be counted on Election Night? What time will results be released? And how do you become Ohio's top elections official? 

Secretary of State Frank LaRose answered these questions and more on The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast. 

Listen to the full episode for free by clicking the link at the top of the article. That's So Cincinnati can also be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and other major listening platforms. LaRose's interview begins at the 9:20 mark in this week's episode.

Here are some snippets from the discussion: 

Highlighting outstanding absentee ballots 

New this year. We're going to actually highlight the number of outstanding absentee ballots (with Election Night results on the Secretary of State's website). This office has always tracked that number. We're going to put it right at the top of the site, and here's why that matters: If your favorite candidate is ahead by a million votes and there's only 200,000 outstanding absentee ballots, then you can look at that and say this is conclusive. But likewise, if your favorite candidate is only ahead by 100,000 and there are yet 200,000 outstanding absentee ballots, then that contest is not over. It's important that we have transparency so people know on Election Night whether they're looking at a conclusive result or not.

When to expect results on Election Night

It's up to the voters. If Ohio voters wait to send in their absentee ballots, then it will cause counting to take longer on Tuesday, Nov. 3. We know based on (this past Tuesday's numbers) there are still over 800,000 outstanding absentee ballots that are sitting on people's kitchen tables or the dashboard of their car.

If tens of thousands of people return their absentee ballots on Saturday or on Monday, what's going to result is a big avalanche of mail arriving on Tuesday that the Board of Elections is going to have to process. That's where it could take longer. But if that doesn't happen, we'll be one of the earlier states (to report results), I really believe. Ohio begins processing our absentee ballots as soon as they arrive. So on Election Night at 7:30, those ballots are ready to count and they count them right away. When you (see results) at 8 or 8:15, those are absentee votes. 

Contrast that to states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. In those states, they can't even slice open the envelopes until election day. Imagine a big place like Wayne County, Michigan, Detroit, they have a vault at their board of elections that has to have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of envelopes in it right now that they can't touch until election day. It could be Friday or Saturday before Michigan has results.

What keeps him up at night

The thing I'm perhaps most concerned about at this point is false information and it comes a whole variety of different sources. It's just the old fashioned rumor mill, it's internet trolls, it's foreign adversaries. We're working hard to make sure that we're getting accurate information out there. We're debunking myths and rumors, shooting down the latest fantasies that people have invented about elections.