Why CSRA voters may get a chance to ‘cure’ their rejected ballot

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Precincts across the country have been experiencing all kinds of delays while counting ballots, including local offices in the two-state region.

And some of those ballots have problems, slowing down the process further.

The most common mistake in Richmond County is failure to sign the ballot. Another problem is signing with a signature that doesn’t match what’s on file.

Election officials say a ballot is only truly rejected if it was received late. Your vote doesn’t count if that happens.

In Richmond County, out of 27,000 mail-in ballots, 140 were rejected because they were either flagged or received late.

And while that’s around half of a percentage point of votes, every single vote counts.

You may get a chance to fix some ballot problems. It’s a process some states call ballot curing.

“Maybe they clearly bubbled in a bubble, but drug their arm,” said Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey.

In a case like this, voters may get a notice from election workers so they can correct the problem.

“We can make that right and count their ballot,” Bailey said.

If you get notice that your ballot had a mistake, you have until offices close Friday to correct that mistake and get your vote counted.

Mail-in ballots also have slowed down the process across the river in South Carolina.

Aiken County election workers counted thousands of mail-in ballots, then when they finished counting, they had to go back and recount a couple hundred for accuracy.

They also experienced other issues like recovering voting data from a lost thumb drive. But Aiken County officials say every vote has been counted now.

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