SARASOTA, Fla. — A voter in Sarasota reached out with a good question: What do you do if your vote-by-mail return envelope arrives sealed shut?
10 Tampa Bay’s Vote Squad reached out to Supervisors of Elections across Tampa Bay. They say out of the hundreds of thousands of ballots mailed, they’ve had a little more than 100 voters reach out with this issue.
First, if there’s anything wrong with your by-mail ballot or envelope or you’re concerned, you should call your election office and they will help you. Election officials say they will simply mail you a new return envelope.
You can also use that envelope and it will not disqualify your ballot.
Supervisors say, if you are able, gently unseal it, put in your ballot, sign the outside of the envelope, tape it shut and initial next to the tape.
The biggest issue is when vote-by-mail ballots are returned without signatures or with signatures that do not match what they have on file.
If you’re concerned about your signature you can update it. If you update online, then they will use the signature that you signed at the DMV.
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