‘We have paper galore’: What happens to all the paper products that go into creating an election?

The 2020 presidential election had record voter turnout around the country, with over 5.7 million Ohioans casting their ballots for presidential candidates (compared to 2016’s 5.2 million). And with an election year comes tons of paper from ballots, ballot envelopes and political yard signs. 

But, when the election is over, that signage often disappears from yards and windows. With Americans using approximately 85,000,000 tons of paper a year, it’s important to keep track of paper used as only 64.7% actually gets recycled. 

Around the country, Boards of Elections are responsible for ensuring that voters are able to effectively cast their ballots. In Portage County, at least two elections take place every year, and they can range from city council to presidential races. 

The Board of Elections is required by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office to order enough for 101% of registered voters for each election. By ordering extra ballots, the board is able to make sure that enough materials are available for voters on Election Day. This election cycle, Portage County had over 107,000 registered voters.

“We ordered 111,000 ballots,” Theresa Nielsen, deputy director of the Portage County Board of Elections, said. “If you figure our turnout was 75%, but 30 of that 75% came here and voted absentee, that’s a lot of ballots that nobody’s going to see or touch that we are required to order.”

Ballots, both used and unused, are shredded and recycled 22 months after the election in accordance with guidelines from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. Once used ballots are tabulated, the results are archived digitally on a non-internet connected system to provide a permanent record and ensure the integrity of the election. The exception to this rule is paper ledgers that were used in Portage County before 1992, of which the physical copies are kept forever.

There is a significant amount of paper used for elections — not just ballots themselves, but for archival records, signature books and poll books. These books are kept for two years. Voter registration documents are kept forever.

“We have paper galore,” Nielsen said. “We have records for everything. When you request an absentee ballot by mail, all of those applications are kept. When you complete your ID envelope and you put it in the mail envelope and mail it to us, we keep both envelopes.” Provisional ballot envelopes, stubs and other paper materials are also kept.

Pens and single-use locks are also among the non-paper materials that are used at the Board of Elections. These materials, when they go unused, are kept for future elections.

“We do what we can to try and conserve our resources, whether they’re environmental conservation or monetary conservation,” Niesen said.

While it would theoretically be possible to change the Board of Elections’ recycling policy to potentially make it more effective, it would require significant structural change at the state level to make it happen.

“The problem is that people like to have redundancies,” Nielsen said. “Even though the election results are on flash drives and are put into our tabulation system, voters like to see the physical paper. If there’s a recount, they want to see us counting the actual ballot, not using a flash drive. There is a distrust of electronics even though our systems for tabulating ballots are not ever connected to the internet.”

Outside of the board of elections, many of the materials associated with political races, like yard signs, are often kept by their owners and recycled for other uses or thrown away.

According to Brad Cromes, the second Vice Chair of the Portage County Democratic Party, voters are encouraged to return yard signs to candidates, hold onto them for the next election, recycle them, or dispose of them in the trash if recycling is not an option.