Florida Ordered to Do More to Count Absentee Ballots
- Ruling in lawsuit is a victory for local democratic party
- Registration deadline extended last week following hurricane
A sign shows the way to the polling place as people vote in the Florida primary on Aug. 30, 2016, in Miami.
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Florida election officials must do more to ensure absentee ballots are counted, a federal judge said in a ruling that called the state’s current practice of invalidating ballots where signatures don’t appear to match those on file an “obscene” disenfranchisement.
The Florida Democratic Party filed the case this month, pointing out that the state invalidates ballots with mismatched signatures, while absentee voters who forget to sign their ballots are contacted to fix the error. Some counties contact voters when they have questions about the handwriting so that they can resubmit their votes. Others don’t.