Signature issues kept 131 ballots from being counted in close Republican congressional primary

A nail-biter finish in a Palm Beach County congressional race last month that left some Republican mail ballots uncounted due to signature issues, could serve as a reminder for those voting by mail in November to make sure they include contact information on the ballot envelope.

A machine recount in the five-person Congressional District 22 primary confirmed that investor Dan Franzese bested financial adviser Deborah Adeimy by just 130 votes.

But 131 Republican voters who live in the district's boundary did not “cure” the signatures on their mail-in ballot in time for their votes to be counted, according to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office. Those included 33 voters who did not sign the voter’s certificate on the ballot envelope, and another 98 ballots in which the signatures did not match the ones on record.

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Of course, Adeimy would have had to win every single one of those 131 votes to have become the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel in the November election.

Perhaps more impactful in this race was the number of undervotes. While 20 Republican voters chose more than one candidate, which disqualified their vote in the five-person primary, 861 of them made no choice.

And it's possible that some of the voters who submitted those uncounted ballots may not have made a choice in this race.

Lesson for voters to avoid having their ballots uncounted

But the incident underscores the impact of ballots being cast but not counted. The uncounted 131 ballots meant those voters didn't have a say in determining their party's nominee despite having made the effort to cast a vote.

It's possible that some impacted voters were contacted about the signature issue and decided not to cure their signatures. Yet others might have resolved their signature issue if they had the opportunity by including additional contact information on their mail-in ballot envelopes.

Florida lawmakers in 2019 required that supervisors of elections include space on mail-in ballot envelopes for voters to write their email addresses and phone numbers, in addition to their mailing addresses. That way, the elections office can call, text or email a voter if a signature issue arises — but this information is not required for a mail-in ballot to be counted.

If the elections office only has a voter’s mailing address on file, a notification letter might not arrive on time. A voter’s phone number on file could also be outdated, Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Wendy Link said.

“We’ll look to see if we have that information in another place, where they have agreed to give it to us,” she said.

Voters using mail-in ballots might do well to include immediate contact information in November when the volume of ballots will be much greater.

Number of ballots with signature issues not a surprise

Overall, the number of ballots — 1,314 — that had signature issues in all Palm Beach County primaries in August did not surprise Link, as this typically represents a small percentage of all ballots cast per election.

About three in every four of these signatures did not match, while 364 voters did not sign their ballots. Link said her office was sending out signature cure letters as late as the Saturday before the Aug. 23 election.

For future elections, voters choosing to cast a ballot by mail can track the status of their ballot from “requested” to “counted” on the supervisor of elections website. Any signature issue will be flagged on the voter’s profile.

Voters who need to fix their signature will fill out a “cure affidavit” to be returned to the elections office no later than two days after polls close at 5 p.m. The voter will sign the affidavit and provide a photocopy of a current ID or a document that shows their name and address, such as a utility bill.

Additionally, voters can update their signature on file by filling out an online voter registration application, which uses the signature from your driver's license.

This year, election supervisors were required by law to set aside time for the "public inspection" of mail-in ballot signatures. After election staff reviewed mail-in ballots for signature issues, "public inspection" allowed for representatives for candidates, political parties and political action committees to request specific ballots be sent to the canvassing board for further signature review.

While the procedure slowed down the processing of mail-in ballots, Link said she did not believe it had any impact on the how many signatures were flagged for issues. The canvassing board accepted the majority of flagged ballots, she said.

Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Signature issues leave ballots uncounted in close Republican primary