Mar 13, 2024 By Mike Jones 4 min read

Washington County’s board of elections is deliberating over whether to allow voters who fail to sign or date their mail-in ballots an opportunity to “cure” the issues so their vote will count.

All 67 counties have multiple options on how to handle the decision after the state Department of State recently gave guidance on the situation, according to Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander.

Ostrander told the elections board during its meeting Tuesday that it has the sole discretion on whether to allow for ballot curing or to offer other solutions for voters to fix deficient ballots ahead of the April 23 primary.

“Do you want to cure?” Ostrander asked the board, which currently includes the three county commissioners since they’re not on the ballot for this election. “It would give voters the opportunity to sign and date (the ballots) if they were missing.”

During last year’s off-year general election, Ostrander said the elections office received fewer than 100 ballots that had such errors. Last year’s elections board, which did not include the three current commissioners, decided to allow people to “cure” their ballots if the signature was missing for the 2023 general election. But it required them to apply for a new ballot or vote provisionally at their precinct if the date was incorrect or missing.

Commissioner Larry Maggi questioned why the previous board offered differing options for signatures and dates, which Ostrander explained was due to a pending appellate court decision at the time that was awaiting a ruling on the date portion.

With that issue now decided, mail-in ballots must be signed and dated. Ostrander said they now have more clarity from the state on how to proceed.

The options include allowing voters to cure their ballots, not counting deficient ballots at all or mark such ballots as “canceled” so the voter will receive an email alert about the problem, cluing them into the need to apply for a new ballot or voting provisionally at their precinct. Ostrander said if the board wants to allow the voters to cure, an elections worker would then call the voter and let them know about the problem and require them to come into the elections office to fix the error.

The options have been continuously changing over the past four years as court decisions come down following challenges by liberal and conservative groups battling over how to handle mail-in and absentee ballots with deficiencies.

“Were there any challenges to the 2023 (process)?” county solicitor Gary Sweat asked about Washington County’s handling of the ballots.

“No,” Ostrander responded.

“The name of the game is to stay out of the courts,” Sweat said about the county’s wishes to not be sued.

But Ostrander said lawsuits are likely to continue since both political sides will be unhappy whether ballots will be permitted to be cured or if votes are discarded due to the errors.

“We’re being told (by state officials) that no matter what we do, we’re going to get sued,” Ostrander said of the likelihood of more lawsuits this year.

Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman, who also chairs the elections board, suggested they consider their options over the next few weeks before making a final decision at their meeting in early April. If any mail-in ballots are returned with errors, Ostrander said they will segregate those and wait for the elections board to decide on how to proceed.

Mail-in and absentee ballots are unlikely to be sent out any earlier than March 25 due to court challenges by at least one candidate who has been removed from the ballot and is challenging that decision.

“We are in a predicament for printing and sending mail-in ballots because of the challenges in the U.S. Senate race,” Ostrander said. “We are in a waiting period now because of that. … The entire state is kind of in a standstill.”

The Washington County elections office has received 11,697 ballot applications so far, which include 9,059 from Democrats and 2,638 from Republicans.