The county approved roughly 13,500 mail-in ballots for this election. However, Cunningham does not expect all ballots to be returned.
“I’ve never had an election in 20 years where they have all been returned,” Cunningham said.
Once the county receives its ballots, the ballot board meets and compares signatures; that process began last week, Cunningham said. If the signatures match, the ballots are opened and scanned. The county does not begin counting ballots until Election Day, per state law.
If the signatures on the ballot do not match, the county tries to match at least one or two letters, Cunningham said. If there is not a signature or if the statement of residence needs to be updated, a vote may not be counted, she said.
The county may try to contact the voter if the signature is wrong depending on how much time there is before Election Day, Cunningham said.
“There no provisions in state law to allow it. We don’t even necessarily have contact info,” she said. “If we mailed something, it would be too late to get it back. If it isn’t signed, I send it back if there’s time [before the election].”
The county will post the mail-in ballot results along with the in-person results the night of the election. It will not be taking in any mail-in ballots not received by Nov. 3, except for military and overseas ballots, per state law, Cunningham said.
