Many people are expected to vote by mail in the upcoming general election. WGCU’s Andrea Perdomo spoke with Lee County Supervisor of Elections, Tommy Doyle, about some FAQs about mail ballots.
Here is a transcript of their conversation:
Perdomo:
So I'm just going to have you start off by explaining how registered voters can go about voting by mail. Like, what do they need to do in order to participate in an election via mail?
Doyle:
Well, of course, voters must be a registered voter in Lee County. Then they have to request their vote by mail. They can request it online, they can call our office, they can send in a request form. Their request has to be made at least 10 days before the election. Once the requests are made, they can make a request for the next two general elections. So if they requested one for November, they could be good all the way through the general elections for 2022.
We will mail the ballots out, domestic ballots out, about 30 days before the election. And when they receive their package, they just need to open it up, vote the ballot, and stick it in our envelope with postage paid to return, and put it in the mail. Or they have concerns about the postage, if they're in town, they could put it in one of our drop boxes that we're going to have during voting.
Perdomo:
So mail-in ballots are not just sent out in mass, right? They need to be requested by voters?
Doyle:
Correct. You have to be a registered voter to even get a ballot. So you're not going to be able to vote by mail if you're not a registered voter.
Perdomo:
So how do Supervisor of Elections offices verify that a mail-in ballot is valid?
Doyle:
All the votes have a barcode on it. Those are scanned and the voter's file comes up. Voter's name is checked, and the signatures are checked. This is the only way we can verify. If the signature matches then we verify that voter sent that ballot back.
Perdomo:
Can you tell me a little bit about what happens if the signature on the ballot doesn't match what you guys have on file?
Doyle:
Yeah. So when the staff looks at the signature, it doesn't match, it's looked at by two different members of our staff. A senior member will look at it and say, "This is a preliminary rejection." We call it a preliminary rejection because we will send out a first-class mail to them. If we have their phone number, we will call them. If we have their email address, we will email. If we have all three, we do all three, stating that, "Your signature doesn't match." It will include a cure affidavit. The cure affidavit, they will sign it, send back a tier 1 ID, if they have one, which is a driver's license, a copy of the driver's license, and if that comes back, we have the copy of the driver's license, signature doesn't have to match anymore. And then we'll use that new signature on the cure affidavit as an updated signature. If they can bring the cure in, that ballot will be accepted.
Perdomo:
Okay. What if a voter simply forgot to sign their mail-in ballot?
Doyle:
It's the same process. If he forgot to sign or she forgot to sign it, we'll send a letter, call them, or email them with a deficiency, and they'll have an opportunity to fix that deficiency. And like I said, they have two days after the election. So Thursday at five o'clock it has to be cured in order for it to be counted.
Perdomo:
And how can a person update their signature prior to sending in a mail-in ballot?
Doyle:
What you can do, you can send in a signature update, which is just a registration form with a change on it. Same information, put a new signature and it will be a signature update. However, if you have voted at the polls and you signed the check-in station, we have those signatures on file. We captured those signatures. So when we verify signatures, we just don't look at one signature. We may have two, three, four signatures in your file that we can compare that to. So, if you don't do a signature update, and you send it in and it doesn't match, you will get a letter from us right away. Or a call, or an email.
Perdomo:
Okay. The signature update, is that something that can be done online or should a person go into the office to take care of that?
Doyle:
You can print out a form online and then mail it in or email it or fax it in.
