Judge Rules in Favor of Dems, Orders Mismatching Signature Fix
October 17th, 2016 by flanewsVoters who mail in their ballots now have some peace of mind if they scribble their names too sloppy. As Matt Galka tells us, a federal judge made sure that people will have the chance to fix a signature mistake – and make sure their vote counts.
“The state of Florida has consistently chipped away at the right to vote,” and “this court knows disenfranchisement when it sees it and it’s obscene.”
Those are just two lines ripped from a blistering ruling from US district judge Mark Walker. He ruled against the state’s policy allowing county canvassing boards to throw out mail in ballots with mismatching signatures without providing a fix.
Missing signature voters are given the chance to fix their ballots. Leon County supervisor of elections Ion Sancho walked us through the process.
“Basically it’s developed off of the same form to cure a non-match, all we did was change a “no” signature cure, to signature cure. There’s several ways you can cure by coming in in person, you can cure by mail, you can cure by email,” said Sancho.
The ruling is the second win for Democrats in the past week. The same judge ruled to extend Florida’s voter registration deadline after Florida Democrats filed a lawsuit following Hurricane Matthew.
“In Florida we have elections won or lost by 1 percent, any little bit counts, and it’s just real important to make sure every vote is counted,” said Max Steele with the party.
More than 513,000 Floridians have already voted by mail. In 2012, around 23,000 mail in ballots were thrown out because of mismatching signatures.
The Department of State responded to us in a statement saying that they just received the ruling last night and were in the process of reviewing it.
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