Problems with casting ballots by mail bring home the point that every vote counts
Army signal officer Jeff Blackman, an Apopka resident, has mailed in an Orange County ballot for five elections and knows the drill.
But the 35-year-old, who is stationed in Texas and responsible for communication systems, said he was surprised his ballot was initially rejected for the Nov. 6 election because of a signature mismatch. He said his handwriting is sometimes a bit messy but he signed his name as usual on the ballot envelope.
“There might have been an extra swoop to something but not enough to where you wouldn’t have been able to determine that it was my signature,” Blackman said, adding that his wife also faced the same issue in the general election.
As recounts are underway for three statewide races and candi-
dates are calling for every vote to be counted, the rejection rate for mail-in ballots has come under scrutiny.
On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that voters who were “belatedly notified” their vote-by-mail ballots were rejected because the signature on the certificate envelope didn’t match what was on file have until 5 p.m. Saturday to “cure” the issue.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner issued an order Thursday that appeared to state the ruling applied only to voters who found out their ballots were rejected after the 5 p.m. deadline on Nov. 5, the day before the election, though there was no express definition of what “belatedly” meant.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who is locked in a tight Senate race with Republican Gov. Rick Scott, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to prevent the state Division of Elections from dismissing mail ballots that were flagged for signature problems by a county’s canvassing board. Scott’s campaign unsuccessfully appealed the ruling.
Nelson’s attorney, Marc Elias, did not give a firm response when asked about the “belatedly notified” language.
“As long as a voter completes some type of certification or statement, that will suffice,” Elias said. “It’s not up to county officials to do that, it’s up to the voter.”
To cure a ballot rejection, a voter is required to complete an affidavit with a copy of their ID and submit it via mail, email or fax before the Saturday deadline.
Danae Rider-Marasco with the Orange Supervisor of Elections Office said a voter seeking to cure their ballot should make sure the copy of his or her ID is “legible and visible, which could be an issue scanning it into a fax.” She suggested bringing a copy to the supervisor’s office at 119 W. Kaley St. in person if possible.
In Central Florida, elections offices each reported various reasons for not counting mail-in ballots — ranging from a voter not signing the certificate envelope to the signature not resembling what is on file at the time of registration. In rare cases, a voter mistakenly signed their spouse’s envelope instead of their own.
Elections officials said they reached out to voters with rejected ballots through phone calls, emails and letters.
Blackman said he and his wife were able to send in the additional paperwork and the online ballot tracker later showed the votes were “accepted.”
Orange County said in its second unofficial report that it received 140,155 votes by mail. Of those, 663 ballots were returned because of a signature mismatch and 75 were later accepted, according to data provided by the elections office. An additional 584 ballots were not signed at all but 122 voters later fixed the problem.
Ocoee resident Maila Rain Stark said she found out in an email that her ballot was rejected three days before the election and was working Thursday to get it resolved to meet the extended deadline.
Stark, a 25-year-old transgender woman stationed in Virginia with the Navy, said she changed her name on her driver’s license and voter registration but the signature wasn’t updated.
“I just really want my vote to count — that’s all I’m asking,” Stark said.
In Seminole County, 55,991 ballots were mailed in by election night and 623 ballots were initially rejected because of a missing or mismatched signature. Of those, 312 were resolved by voters who returned the signed affidavit.
The Osceola County elections office said 43,928 ballots came in by mail and the canvassing board initially returned 403 mail-in ballots because of a missing signature — 119 of those were cured. It was determined that 173 signatures didn’t match the registration and 31 cases were eventually resolved. Also, 301 people signed the wrong ballot envelope and the canvassing board later accepted 278 of those votes.
The Lake County elections office said it received 33,253 ballots in the mail and initially rejected 524 for either a signature mismatch or no signature at all. Of those returned ballots, 167 were cured before Election Day.
As the recount deadline neared, most of the elections supervisors in Central Florida were unavailable to explain the criteria used to evaluate a voter’s signature on a mail-in-ballot.
Osceola County Community Relations Coordinator Kari Ewalt said the canvassing board looks for any similarity between the signature on file and the signature on the certificate envelope. The board also considers factors such as the age of the voter and the time between registration and Election Day, she added.
“Typically, if they can find any similarity at all, they accept the signature,” Ewalt said in an email.
Lawyers for Nelson and the Florida Democratic Party argued in court that a person’s signature likely changes over time and circumstances such as injury or illness could alter a voter’s handwriting.
“I ask each of you — just consider whether or not you would want your ballot thrown out by an untrained, even though well-intentioned, election worker or a volunteer, all because he or she determined that your signature doesn’t look right,” Nelson previously said in a statement.
After the Thursday ruling, Scott’s office said that it is “immediately appealing this baseless decision and we are confident we will prevail.”
For Blackman, his continued military service means he’ll likely have to continue voting by mail despite the potential his ballot could be thrown out.
“Ever since I’ve started doing absentee voting, there’s always been like a little risk to it in the back of my head every time I drop it in the mail — I just kinda hope that it counts,” Blackman said.