PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — With Election Day just around the corner, NewsChannel 5 wants to help you know how to make sure your vote counts.
In Palm Beach County, about 15% of votes placed during early voting so far were flagged for potential issues.
According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Sartory-Link, out of the 194,000 ballots placed, 2,700 were flagged, usually because of a simple, honest mistake.
“One is that the voter didn’t sign their envelope at all, and we’re required to have a signature,” said Sartory-Link.
It’s one of many mistakes a voter might make that could make a ballot unusable if gone unfixed, including mismatched signatures.
“It’s tricky,” said Glyn Moulton, a voter in Delray Beach. “You have to sign your name in the right place, it’s a tricky little ballot.”
Sartory-Link said the good news is, just because your ballot is flagged, doesn’t mean it won’t count. If there is a problem with your ballot, you’ll get a call, email, or text, giving you a chance to fix your ballot within two days. It’s a process called curing.
“In the end, we usually have, of all of our vote by-mail ballots, less than half a percent that aren’t cured,” said Sartory-Link.
She said out of the 2,700 ballots flagged so far in the county, about a third, 919, have already been cured.
Sartory-Link said the other good news is that the flagging process helps keep elections secure by identifying and eliminating any potential fraudulent ballots.
“That’s what we’re most worried about,” said Sartory-Link.
The added security is comforting for Moulton, and others.
“It makes me feel a little bit better. especially if you’re voting by mail,” said Moulton.
I definitely want [my vote] to count,” added Delray Beach resident, Jamie O’Connor.
It was also comforting for Tony Agostini, who previously wasn’t planning on voting. “If everything you said is true, I’d have to do a little bit more research, but yeah, I’d consider [voting].
If you do get contacted by the Supervisor of Elections office, they’ll ask you to fill out an affidavit, sign it, and turn it in by November 10th by 5 p.m.
You can also track the status of your ballot by heading here: https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/My-Status.
