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If Your Ballot Envelope Comes Sealed

kunr.org

Voting by mail is generally pretty straightforward. You request a ballot, fill in your choices, sign the envelope provided, then mail it back.

But what if the envelope arrives already sealed? It’s a common problem in this very humid part of the country, according to Lee County Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle. Fortunately, the solution is simple.

If your mail-in ballot arrives presealed, Doyle says to slit open the envelope and insert your ballot. You should initial the top of the envelope and seal it with clear tape.

The most important thing is that you sign your ballot at the red x before returning it.

It’s your signature that verifies your mail-in ballot; not whether or not your envelope has been sealed.

For more information, go to lee.vote or consult your county’s supervisor of elections website.

Copyright 2020 WGCU

Cary Barbor is the local host of All Things Considered and a reporter for WGCU. She was a producer for Martha Stewart Radio on Sirius XM, where she hosted a live interview show with authors of new books called Books and Authors. She was a producer for The Leonard Lopate Show, a live, daily show that covered arts, culture, politics, and food on New York City’s public radio station WNYC. She also worked as a producer on Studio 360, a weekly culture magazine; and The Sunday Long Read, a show that features in-depth conversations with journalists and other writers. She has filed stories for The Pulse and Here & Now. In addition to radio, she has a career writing for magazines, including Salon, Teen Vogue, New York, Health, and More. She has published short stories and personal essays and is always working on a novel. She was a Knight Journalism Fellow, where she studied health reporting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and followed epidemiologists around Kenya and Alaska. She has a B.A. in English from Lafayette College and an M.A. in Literature from the University of Massachusetts.