Federal Judge Lets Florida Voters Fix Mismatched Ballot Signatures

Employees at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office recount ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Employees at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office recount ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
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A federal judge is giving thousands of Florida voters until this weekend to fix their ballots if they haven’t been counted due to mismatched signatures.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled early Thursday that current Florida law on mail-in ballots places a substantial burden on voters. The ruling comes as Florida is wrapping up a recount in three statewide races.

Walker did not go along with a request from Democrats to count all ballots with mismatched signatures. Instead he ordered that local election officials give voters until 5 p.m. on Saturday to correct the problem so that their ballots can be counted.

State officials testified in court that nearly 4,000 ballots have already been rejected because local canvassing boards decided the signature that was mailed-in doesn’t match the signature on file.

Unofficial results in the U.S. Senate race have Republican Gov. Rick Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.14 percentage points, which will almost certainly send it to another recount that will last through the weekend.

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  1. The whole “Signature” thing is bullshit anyway.
    I vote by absentee
    I get mailed one ballot to my home address
    It cant be duplicated
    Someone is going to steal it and forge my signature?
    In your fever dreams Republicans
    In your dreams

  2. The people who forge signatures are the same people who show up in person to vote, then go to the car and put on a disguise and go back and vote again and again. s/

  3. At least we can rest assured this judge isn’t issuing these rulings for nefarious reasons. It’s not as if he’s named Curiel or something like that.*

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.*

    Although there is. You just can’t say it.*

    ***Well, you can say it, but just be sure you do it in front of the proper audience.

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