Once your ballot has been placed in the ballot box, it cannot be removed. Gilbertson said the county has evaluated overvotes for voter intent with a bipartisan board since the Help America Vote Act was passed in 2002. © 2020 eNCA, an eMedia Holdings company. The returning officer will then make their call on whether it can be accepted. All rights reserved. If your polling place uses paper, punch-card, or optical scan ballots, the poll worker will be able to take your old ballot and give you a new one. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes received a cease and desist order demanding he stop allowing voters to cross out mistakes on their ballots. ‘If voters shade the wrong oval for a candidate and they are at a polling station using a pencil, they can ask one of the polling station team for a rubber to erase it and make their correction,’ she said. ‘Counting machines will be used to count the votes on Thursday following the polls being closed on Wednesday,’ said Ms Dene. Voter instructions from the 2016 election reviewed by The Arizona Republic told voters to request a new ballot if they made a mistake. Support local journalism. Alexander Kolodin, an attorney who ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature during the August primary, sent the cease and desist letter on behalf of the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance and East Valley politico Tyler Montague.
Not much, experts say, Chain restaurants closing locations this year, Can you correct a mistake on your ballot? Yes, according to the instructions sent to Maricopa County voters for the August election. Kolodin said in an interview that anyone who touches a ballot after a voter puts it into the mail, from postal workers to elections workers, could hypothetically cross out a vote and mark a new vote for a different candidate. She said that one way to do this would be to shade the vote out completely, while another was to make a clear statement beside it to say it was the wrong vote. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is reviewing the letter, according to Maricopa County Elections Department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson.
Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, a conservative political nonprofit, sent a cease and desist letter to Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes demanding he stop including those instructions in voter pamphlets. Voters must then follow the two-envelope mail ballot system by first putting their ballot paper in the secrecy envelope, envelope A, with no identifying information, then sign the declaration of identity and place it, with the secrecy envelope, into the addressed outer envelope, envelope B. Kolodin said that if a voter makes a mistake, the only way to cure that mistake should be to request a new ballot. We contacted the Board of Elections, and they laid it out for us. If they agree, they award the vote in that race based on what they determine to be the voter's intent. ‘But there is an adjudication process and the votes will also be viewed on the screen, plus any votes the machine cannot read it will flag up to us at which point we’ll check it. The ballot tabulators will flag ballots where there are not enough or too many bubbles filled out in a race. A ballot with a crossed-out bubble and then another filled-in bubble would be flagged as an "overvote," and a scan of the specific race in question is sent to election workers for further screening. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. If you vote absentee, what happens if you make a mistake? New law on political party funding impacted 2019 polls: ANC, Public hearings into Political Party Funding Act begin, Ramaphosa investigated by Public Protector, Trump COVID-19 symptom-free for 24 hours: doctor, Unions give govt 14 days to respond to demands, Police arrest farmer for alleged role in violent Senekal protests, Mthembu: Cabinet supports law enforcement agencies, Biden warns 'forces of darkness' dividing US, urges unity, SPONSORED: The Leadership Paradigm for the New Economy in a Conscious Society, Tesco profits surge as virus fuels online food demand, Stocks swing as Trump hits stimulus hope but calls for handouts. A bipartisan group of poll workers review ballots with these types of mistakes to determine the voter's intent when possible, she said. New instruction spurs debate in Maricopa County. If the three workers still cannot come to an agreement, they do not count the vote for that race.
She said the ballot does not leave the envelope, which is signed by the voter, until that signature has been verified. Kolodin said he was not aware that the county had a practice of allowing elections workers to determine a voter's intent and found that even more concerning. But the practice of allowing voters to cross out a mistake and mark a new selection is not new, Gilbertson said. Kolodin said he plans to file a lawsuit if Fontes refuses to change the instruction. Check your registration status here. Super polling stations open today and tomorrow, while parish polling stations will open on Tuesday and the main election day, Wednesday. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 28761824) The instruction to cross out a mistake is new this year. Liz Dene, a member of the election 2020 team, has advised voters that as long as they clearly correct any mistake they make on their ballot paper, it will be counted – even if the counting machine cannot read it. If you select the wrong candidates just fill in the number you previously pressed and start over. In the letter, Koldin said the new instruction "increases the potential for fraud in our elections because anyone in the ballot’s chain of custody can alter a vote in a way that is indistinguishable from an alteration made by the voter themselves.". JOHANNESBURG - eNCA takes a look at some of the questions commonly asked by voters, ahead of the May 8th poll. Start the day smarter.
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