Hundreds of ballots for Tuesday’s primary were sent in unsigned, meaning the ballot is not accepted, and each supervisor of elections is handling the problem differently.
Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles is concerned. He said 500 absentee ballots were sent back to his office unsigned for next week’s primary which he says is very high.
“Five-hundred ballots can make a difference of someone winning outright or it might make the difference of who is in the run off,” Cowles said.
“If a voters absentee ballot comes in and it’s not signed I go, oh no. It’s heartbreaking,” said Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Michael Ertel.
Election leaders in Lake, Flagler and Marion counties said they sent out letters to those who forgot to sign their absentee ballots.
In Osceola County, if a voter forgot to sign their absentee ballot they got a letter and a call, if the election office had their phone number, according to their election officials.
But supervisors in Orange, Seminole and Brevard County said they are not contacting voters.
They said they fear that by contacting voters they are opening themselves up to a lawsuit or accusations of unfair treatment.
“The problem is that any voter that they don’t reach can easily assert that they were at home, should have been reached and that the process is unfair to them,” said Doug Head, chairman of the advocacy group County Watch.
In years past the votes would not be counted if a ballot came back unsigned, but this year is different.
“This year, for the first time ever, you can cure that mistake,” Ertel said.
In 2012 Ertel fought to have a new system in place. It gives voters who forgot to sign their absentee ballot a second chance by tracking the ballot online.
If you forgot to sign it, it will inform you.
Then you fill out an affivadit form and fax or bring it into your supervisors of elections offical. But you do have a deadline.
“It’s all got to be done by 5 p.m. Monday night because that’s the deadline for curing a no signature absentee,” Cowles said.