A federal judge has allowed some Floridians who had their mail-in votes rejected to attest to their votes’ validity by 5 p.m. on Nov. 17 and have the votes counted.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled on Nov. 15 that some voters were denied the opportunity to validate, or cure, their rejected votes by the lawful deadline and thus deserve an exception.
These votes were rejected because the signatures on the ballots were determined by election officials to not match the voters’ signatures on record with the elections’ authorities.
Who Is the Ruling For?
Walker, an Obama appointee, estimated about 5,000 ballots ended up rejected across the state for signature mismatches. But his ruling only pertains to “voters who have been belatedly notified they have submitted a mismatched-signature ballot.” It’s not clear how many of the “belatedly notified” there are among the rejected.State law requires election officials to “immediately notify” voters with signature mismatches. The voters then can submit an affidavit affirming the ballot was indeed signed by them. The affidavits need to be submitted by 5 p.m. one day before the election.
The law, however, allows election officials to accept mail-in ballots that arrive by 7 p.m. on election day. If signatures on those late ballots don’t match the record they can’t be cured anymore since the deadline for the affidavits already passed. It was for voters who weren’t notified in time to cure their ballots that Walker allowed the deadline extension.
Scott’s campaign highlighted that Walker rejected Nelson’s broader request to have all signature mismatch ballots automatically counted as valid.
Also on Nov. 15, but in a separate suit of Nelson’s, Walker ruled against suspending deadlines for the recount, which was required by law to be completed by 3 p.m. on Nov. 15.
Meanwhile, Nelson’s campaign said on Nov. 15 it had sued Florida election officials seeking a hand recount in Palm Beach “due to systematic machine failure during the machine recount.”
Altered Forms
While Nelson protested Florida’s deadline for curing mail-in ballots, his party seems to have misled some voters about when the deadline was.The department released emails indicating the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) was behind the altered forms.
The Nov. 8 email was addressed to Florida Elections Division Director Maria Matthews.
The party was hoping a judge would rule in its favor and move the deadline for the cures, an unnamed Palm Beach Democratic activist told the paper.
One Democratic campaign consultant, Jake Sanders, said he raised the legality of spreading the incorrect forms with the party’s staff, but to no avail.
“I warned FDP staff members of the questionable legal status of altering a state form and misleading people their vote would be counted before the court case played out,” Sanders told the paper. “And coordinated campaign leadership told them to keep pushing it that ‘We are exhausting every possibility.’”
McVay also noted that federal law prohibits “disseminating false information as to the date, timing, or location of federal voting activity.” That law, however, only pertains to activities that are “preventing or impeding qualified voters from participating in an election.”
The campaigns of Nelson and Scott, as well as the Florida Democratic Party, didn’t respond to requests for comment.