Some Lee County voters are receiving warnings on postcards that their vote by mail ballot may not be counted in the upcoming November election because their signature doesn’t match what’s on file with the local election office.
Brightly colored postcards are showing up in mailboxes and read that the voter's signature does not match the Supervisor of Elections records.
Melinda Isley, of Fort Myers, said she was angry when she received the postcard and said it was very confusing.
She had filled out a petition supporting an amendment to protect abortion rights in Florida. The postcard warned that her signature on that petition had been rejected and warned her vote by mail ballot may not be counted as well.
“Going forward is my signature going to be counted for the main election in November. That is the most important,” Isley stressed.
NBC-2 has learned more than 30,000 signatures were collected in Lee County for Amendment IV and 2,500 were rejected by the Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office alone.
“All of the petitions signed in Lee County come through us, and we have staff members looking at those, and some do get rejected, because they do not substantially match what's on file,” explained Election Supervisor Tommy Doyle.
He stressed despite what the postcard says, it doesn't mean a vote by mail ballot will be rejected.
“It's a different process. The only person or people who can reject your vote by mail is the canvassing board,” Doyle said.
He noted that in the August primary only 200 mail ballots were flagged for signatures not matching those on record.
“Voters are notified by our staff. They'll get a letter, text message or phone call saying your signature didn't match, and this is how you can cure it,” Doyle stated.
It turns out only 100 voters didn't fix or cure their mail ballot in August so only those votes were rejected.
Doyle urges voters to track their mail ballots online.
Abortion rights organizers collected nearly 1.4 million signatures, which surpassed the 891,000 needed to get the measure placed on the November ballot for voters to have the final say on the matter.