Hillary Clinton posted on Twitter today asking voters to check on the status of their absentee ballots in key swing states around the country. With five states currently awaiting the results, Americans are eagerly awaiting to find out who the next President will be. News networks are reporting that some votes in 18 states still need to be ‘cured,’ a term that refers to a process that confirms a ballot is legitimate should it be rejected for various reasons.
The most common situation that a ballot might be rejected is that the signature on the ballot does not match the signature on file. For Millennial and Generation Z voters that often don’t have a specified signature, this could mean trouble. In most states, the signature on your ballot must match the signature you provided for your drivers license or state ID. Should your ballot be rejected, you can likely ‘cure’ it by going through a verification process with your local election officials to verify that you were the one that filled it out.
Georgia, one of the key swing states in the 2020 election, asks that voters check to see if their vote was accepted through the state portal. For voters that find that their absentee ballot was rejected, you can contact your state registrar’s office to go through the curing process. The process might entail a list of questions that election officials will ask to validate your identity. Voters can cure their ballots in Georgia through five p.m. on Friday, November 6th.
Not every state allows ballot curing but every state requires voters to sign their absentee or mail-in ballots. Check on your states’ policy, and the status of your ballot, here. Voters in Nevada and Pennsylvania may be asked to check on the status of their absentee or mail-in ballots as well.
