TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Floridians who vote by mail are ten times more likely than in-person voters to have their ballots invalidated, a new report has found, with so-called signature mismatches causing the vast majority of the rejections.

  • Report authored by University of Florida political science professor
  • In 2016, 28,000 vote by mail ballots rejected
  • Call for more uniform vote-by-mail system

The report was commissioned by the ACLU's Florida chapter and authored by University of Florida political science professor Daniel Smith. It suggests the mismatch rejections will become more prevalent as voting by mail grows in popularity.

In 2016, 28.7 percent of Floridians voted by mail, up from 27.8 percent four years earlier.

"For Florida to have free and fair elections, all eligible voters must have equal opportunity to vote, including those casting (and curing) vote by mail ballots," the report says.

"Curing" refers to the process whereby voters whose mail-in ballots have been flagged with a signature issue - either a mismatch or the absence of a signature altogether - are given an opportunity to rectify the problem.

In 2016, a Tallahassee federal judge ordered the state to require all 67 county election supervisors to inform affected voters their ballots won't count unless they take action. In 2017, the Florida Legislature effectively codified the ruling in statute.

But while some voters with flagged ballots submitted documentation to their local supervisors proving their identities, many others didn't. In 2016, 28,000 vote by mail ballots were rejected - a number that could easily represent the margin of victory or defeat in close races.

The report also finds that Floridians under the age of 30 make up 9.2 percent of all vote-by-mail voters, yet cast 30.8 percent of the rejected mail-in ballots in 2016.

Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley suggests younger voters are especially susceptible to ballot rejections because of their maturing signatures.

"My son is 18. He pre-registered at 16, and the schools are not really teaching cursive writing anymore, so his signature, he kind of made something up on the spot," Earley said. "And now, I'm sure his signature has changed in those two years."

It's another reason, Earley added, "we always push early voting more than vote by mail."

The report is calling on state leaders to design a more uniform vote by mail system, with a universal mail-in ballot design to prevent voters from failing to provide their signature. It also demands the implementation of "specific procedures" for contacting mail-in voters whose ballots have been flagged.

"To be sure, responsibility for the variation of invalid VBM ballots in Florida rests with individual voters, who have the responsibility to follow instructions and have an up-to-date signature on file," the report reads. "But responsibility to protect the right to vote also rests with election officials who process and validate VBM ballots."