People who vote by mail in Duval County expect their vote to count. But sometimes problems arise with ballots that can jeopardize that.
WJCT News spoke with Robert Phillips, who is the Chief Elections Officer with the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office.
Here's what he had to say about potential issues that might come up:
Question: If you make a mistake on your ballot or you want to change who you voted for, can you request another one?
Answer: Phillips said as long as the elections office hasn’t received your first ballot, the office will be happy to send you a second one. If both ballots get returned, Phillips said the first one received is the one that gets counted. The second one, he said, gets marked “not valid” and is set aside.
Question: What happens if your signature is different from the one on file in the elections office or if a husband and wife sign each other’s ballot by mistake?
Answer: Phillips said if a signature doesn’t match or if it’s someone else’s signature all together, election staff will let the voter know there’s a problem. To fix it, the voter needs to fill out what he calls a “cure” affidavit and mail it back to the elections office along with a copy of their ID.
Related: Voter's Guide And Election News
People who think there might be a problem can download a copy of the cure affidavit from the elections office website and send it in without first being told of a discrepancy.
Phillips says fewer than 1% of the vote-by-mail ballots received by his office get rejected because of an invalid signature.
Question: Some Duval County voters report their mail-in ballot is too big to fit into the return envelope that came with it. What should they do?
Answer: Phillips said to fold the ballot until it fits in the envelope. It will still be counted regardless of how many creases it has.
Question: How do you know if the Election Supervisors office has received your mail-in ballot and that it’s been counted?
Answer: Phillips said to call the Supervisor of Elections office and ask. Every election, the Office ramps up a call center with more than 50people whose job it is to answer voters’ questions. The number to call is 904-630-1414.
