Thousands of mail-in ballots in Florida are at risk of not getting counted after they were flagged for errors in this year’s midterm elections.
“Voters still have the opportunity to correct the problem,” said Amy Keith, program director with Common Cause Florida, a nonpartisan organization that works on voting issues. “We want every Florida voter to make sure that they have their voice heard in this election.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 15,000 mail-in ballots had been flagged for signature errors and other mistakes. Voters who have issues with their ballot may fix the problem by calling their local elections’ supervisors office and following instructions to have their ballot “cured,” Keith said.
Voters with ballot errors must complete a “vote-by-mail cure affidavit” and return it to their county elections office. Some counties allow voters to email a copy of their ID and affidavit to the office. The deadline to submit paperwork to fix a ballot is 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10.
Elections supervisors are required to notify voters whose ballots have been flagged for errors within a reasonable amount of time. Still that could be days, and some voters might not realize their ballot hasn’t yet been counted, especially if they don’t include their phone number or email address with their ballot. That’s why Common Cause is urging voters not to wait for an elections official to notify them that their mail-in ballot was flagged, Keith said.
“Go online and track your ballot, so that you can make sure that it was received without a problem.”
Voters may track their ballot online through most county elections supervisor’s websites. They may also call their county elections' office to make sure their ballot has been counted.
Data shows higher rate of flagged mail-in ballots, younger voters most affected
The number of rejected ballots days ahead of this year’s elections is on par with the 2018 and 2020 elections, said Daniel Smith, chair of the political science department at the University of Florida, who acquired and analyzed the state elections data. Still, there were fewer vote-by-mail ballots returned this year, meaning the rate of rejected ballots is higher.
“That's a concern,” Smith said. “These individuals are going to have to start working, hopefully having some assistance from their supervisor of elections or some groups that are on the ground tracking this.”
Voters under 30 are most likely to have ballot errors, Smith said. His data analysis shows about 2.3 – 3 % of voters in that age group had their mail-in ballots rejected, while .5% of voters older than 65 had ballot errors. Smith explains that’s because younger voters are often casting a mail-in ballot.
“Many of them think that their role is done. They got their ballot in early, they dropped it off at the supervisor’s office, the drop box or put it in the mail,” Smith said. “But many of them are not going to realize that their ballot’s not going to count.”
Common problems with mail-in ballots involve signatures, either a voter didn’t sign the envelope used to return their mail-in ballot or they were flagged because the signatures didn’t match what the elections’ office had on file.
According to Smith’s data analysis: 9,090 ballots were flagged due to mismatched signatures, 5,167 were flagged because they were missing a signature on the envelope and 1,457 had other "voter caused errors," such as not having the proper identification on file with the supervisor of elections’ office.
Elections officials have emphasized that voting-by-mail is secure, but it also involves multiple steps. “We’re one of the states that uses it more than any other, Smith said. “But it does come at the risk that your ballot may not count, because the signature has to be there and it has to match what's on record on file.”
In 2016, voters in Florida didn’t have the opportunity to fix their mail-in ballots. Voters got that ability through the courts following legal challenges. “And voters should take every opportunity to do that.”
