Noon on the Saturday before election day is the cutoff for getting an absentee ballot in Ohio.  But if you’re sick and hospitalized, you get an exemption.   Now, the non-partisan Ohio Justice aned Policy Center in Cincinnati argues that people who are arrested over the weekend before election day and detained on election day should also get an absentee ballot.   Spokesman David Singleton says it’s a matter of equal protection under the law.  

"We're not talking about people who have been found guilty. They are people who are presumed innocent andf in fact, there are some who will be found innocent."

Singleton can’t say how many eligible voters might be affected by getting locked up on that final weekend,  but he says it could be important.

"It's hard to know.  This is going to be a close election and a few hundred votes one way or the other could make all the difference in the world." 

Convicted felons can vote in Ohio if they are no longer in prison.