THE DREADED SIGNATURE PROBLEM

The signature requirement for Florida ballots makes absentee voters nervous. What if your signature changes? What if, in the stress of bubbling in a long ballot, you forget to sign it?

You're not alone. Mother Jones reported as of last Thursday 15,765 people turned in mail ballots with some kind of signature problem. The magazine cited data from University of Florida professor Daniel Smith, specifically noting that 12,261 faulty ballots had no signature at all. The remaining 3,504 had some other kind of signature problem.

Mother Jones wrote that those ballots "had been rejected." That's not quite true.

In fact, no ballots have been rejected in Florida. At least not yet.

If there is an issue with a signature on an absentee ballot, the voter has until 5 p.m. today (Monday before the election) to submit an affidavit [PDF link here, with instructions] with their signature and a copy of their identification. That should fix the problem, and ensure their vote is counted.

If you're worried about the status of your mail ballot, you can go to your local supervisor of elections' website. Plug in your name and search to see if your ballot has been received. If it has, and there's some kind of issue with your signature, the website should note that.

There's still time, though not much, to get an affidavit to the supervisors to remedy the problem.

CHECK YOUR MAIL BALLOT STATUS

PINELLAS

HILLSBOROUGH

PASCO

HERNANDO

ALL OF FLORIDA

In Hillsborough County, elections workers have sent letters and emails or phone calls when possible to people who have an issue, said communications director for the supervisor of elections, Gerri Kramer. Same goes for Pasco County, said the supervisor there, Brian Corley, and in Pinellas, according to an elections office spokesman, Dustin Chase.

After 5 p.m. today, ballots without a signature won't be counted. Those with signatures that might not match voter records still have a chance.

Rejecting a mail ballot completely requires several steps. Take Hillsborough, for example. First, an employee who identifies a non-matching signature will flag that ballot. They cannot, on their own, reject a vote. The supervisor's office gives the gives voters the chance to clear up perceived discrepancies with an affidavit and ID. If that doesn't lead to a solution, a canvassing board — which in Hillsborough is made up of the supervisor of elections, Craig Latimer, and two judges — decides whether to accept the signature and ballot or to throw it out.

"Having personally eyeballed these types of issues, I can tell you the signatures that come back flagged for mismatch are beyond night and day of what we have on file," Corley, in Pasco, wrote in an email.

As of Monday morning, he said, 65,702 mail ballots had been returned in his county, and 104 had no signature. Another 103 had a signature mismatch.

Pinellas as of early Monday had received 314 ballots with no signature, 161 of which had already been remedied with an affidavit. Another 529 ballots had a problem with the signature not matching a voter's record. Of those, 224 were fixed with an affidavit or accepted by the local canvassing board, Chase said.

About 1,500 ballots initially sent out in Pasco were returned as undeliverable, and another roughly 7,500 ballots in Pinellas, elections officials said.

As of Monday at noon, Hillsborough staffers had received 286 ballots without a signature and had flagged 488 as having a mismatched signature. They had received 247 affidavits to fix the problems, Kramer said.

In Miami-Dade,according to elections officials, 1,894 ballots had been returned with no signature and 1,163 had a mismatch.

THE STAMP QUESTION

Sending in a mail ballot takes money. Not much, but some. In Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, voters have to pay for their own postage. In Hillsborough, the supervisor of elections office covers the return.

The cost of postage can vary. Numerous counties do not provide Spanish-language information, and thus their ballots are shorter. Postage in Pinellas will cost 71 cents, or two forever stamps. Pasco's requires 50 cents.

But what if you forget to pay altogether? The ballot should still reach the supervisors' office, ultimately. Election officials in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando all said the postal service still makes the delivery.

Corley, the Pasco supervisor, said his office has an arrangement with the United States Postal Service to make the delivery and they later settle up after the election.

"It's just too important," he wrote in an email.

That's in line with most offices, according to a report from ProPublica, which quoted a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson as saying the organization is "steadfast" in its "commitment to support democracy … [and] will not deny a voter their right to vote by delaying a time-sensitive ballot because of insufficient postage."

A Florida spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service did not respond to a request for comment.

"We're not going to reject a ballot based on a lack of postage," said Chase, the Pinellas supervisor of elections spokesman. "So if it gets there we'll figure it out."

THE STATUS SO FAR

The state reported Monday morning that 2,400,812 people had already voted by mail.

The breakdown included 1,001,727 Republicans, 938,798 Democrats and 446,389 people with no party affiliation.

Meanwhile, another 1,087,503 absentee ballots had not yet been returned.

That included 350,599 Republicans, 462,082 Democrats and 267,181 people with no party affiliation.

Another 2,709,268 people had voted early.

Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.

The Tampa Bay Times this year has partnered with ProPublica on a project called Electionland. We're examining the process of voting, as part of a network of media outlets across the country. If you have a problem or question, before or after you cast a ballot, don't hesitate to contact us. Follow @TB_Times or @Electionland on Twitter, and find both on Facebook. Email a reporter directly at zsampson@tampabay.com.