The investigation into irregularities with absentee ballots during the 2010 general election certainly took much longer than it should have, making both the timing and the outcome itself suspect.

But, in the end, the only thing that truly matters is that this helped shine a light on a part of Ohio’s voting process that clearly has potential flaws.

Hopefully this will help election officials prevent any widespread abuse in the future.

The special grand jury that convened Monday at the request of Attorney General Mike DeWine determined that no crimes occurred.

So not only can the timeline be questioned but you have to wonder exactly what the grand jury heard and what lead to this conclusion?

It may be that no crime occurred. The Attorney General clearly felt something was there and Secretary of State Jon Husted agreed.

“There was an attempt to violate the election law with the attempt to cast and count fraudulent votes,” Husted said in 2011. “If we didn’t believe there were irregularities that amounted to a violation of law we would not have referred it to the attorney general and the county prosecutor.”

Maybe this was simply a misunderstanding or clerical issue.

But, most importantly, we hope this helps Lawrence County — and the entire state — take a long look at the absentee system.