Judge Michael Watson of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio ruled against changing Ohio’s signature-matching process to verify absentee ballots on Sunday.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the A. Philip Randolph Institute and two Ohio voters whose primary ballots were rejected due to mismatched signatures challenged Ohio’s law that requires election officials to match the voter’s signature on the ballot with the signature on the envelope containing the ballot.
Election officials can challenge the vote if they determine the signatures do not match and must notify the voter that there’s a defect in the ballot, according to state law. Voters can correct the signature no later than the seventh day after Election Day in order for their vote to be counted.
The plaintiffs reportedly argued that there isn’t enough time for voters to fix their ballots due to slow delivery times within the mailing system, noting that voters who send in an absentee ballot close to the election may be disenfranchised if they receive notice of a defect too late and miss the seven-day window…
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