Welcome to Nuts & Bolts, a guide to Democratic campaigns. I’ve helped write this series for years using information from campaign managers, finance directors, field directors, trainers, and staff, responding to questions from Daily Kos Community and Staff members, and addressing issues that are sent to me via kosmail through Daily Kos.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots are rejected every election cycle because of small errors. These are not traditional problems like overvoting or undervoting, but more often linked to simple rejection because of signature mismatch or even returned in a stained letter. There are lots of things that can trip a rejection of a ballot. In many states, there is a practice that allows voters to cure their ballot. Because ballot curing allows for better participation in elections, it is fitting we find ways to cure ballots when it is possible.
Curing ballots makes sure that voters who want to be heard actually have their ballot counted, and that states with ballot curing procedures set the standard to make sure that activists seek out those who need to be heard; a process that can be tracked and allows that voter to ensure their ballot was not discarded from the vote count.
In general, Altamirano says, states with a cure process, ballot tracking and more accessible ballot drop-off policies tend to reject a lower percentage of ballots each election. But "if the state you live in has a more stringent set of hoops to jump through to cast your ballot, the more likely it is that your ballot will be rejected," he says.
Get practice
This year, we are going to see several races where vote curing may make a significant difference in the outcome of an election. Lauren Boebert is of course looking at what vote curing might do to her potential viability of staying in office. Even in races where vote curing will not significantly change the outcome of the race, though, understanding the process is important, and working on it helps you prepare for future elections.
Understanding the rules within your state of curing ballots, managing provisional ballots, and handling incoming votes can make a significant difference in some years and little to no difference in others. Even in years where the election outcome is a certainty, use the time to train up volunteers and others in how the practice works. You don’t want to come into an election where helping people through the provisional ballot and ballot curing practice can make the outcome correctly match the voters intent and discover you don’t have any volunteers and workers who understand the process.
Let’s take a US Congress person who wins a race by 17 points. They don’t need someone to go in and make sure all of the provisional ballots are checked and cured as it would not change the outcome of the race. Still, most states require the process to happen and it is normally done county by county in a short amount of time. Understanding the process, even as an observer, allows you to build up institutional knowledge not just for that congressperson or that state elected official, but for any official running in other areas of the state. While one candidate’s win by tens of thousands of votes may not be questioned, you may have another loss by less than one hundred votes that could change, all depending on whether or not provisional ballots and ballots that need curing are handled and validated. This is why understanding the process in every race, every state matters.
What does the law say?
Let’s say you are in Colorado and your ballot was not counted because of a signature mismatch. According to state law, a confirmation form accompanying the letter must be returned to the county clerk and recorder within eight days after Election Day to count. This means you have until next Wednesday to submit to the county clerk a letter stating you are who you say you are, and your vote should be counted. In California, voters have until 5 p.m. on the eighth day after the election to submit an unsigned ballot statement. Both of these policies are very similar.
Illinois provides fourteen days after the election, while Kentucky only allows for a correction until the end of the day that the scheduled election is held.
Learning what your state law says can make a big difference in how you organize and plan to make sure that the early voters who may have made mistakes get their voices heard.
There is an opportunity in the Republican losses of 2022.
I have been an advocate for lobbying state houses. State houses are the place where Republicans have instituted policies that have been deadly for voting rights in America. The lack of a red wave, and the way in which this election was lost will cause Republicans to point fingers and wonder if they have made mistakes in their own practices. If your state does not have a vote-curing process, or if your state has a more difficult provisional voting practice, now might be the time to start lobbying in your state house for changes in both of those policies - especially if a Republican legislature just watched state-wide candidates lose.
Changes in these policies could be beneficial to all voters and could help Republicans as well in red states. The question is can Democratic party efforts work to put changes like these into the law, understand them, and work with voters to make sure that potential opportunities to vote and be heard will make an ongoing difference at the ballot box?
That’s a question for state houses nationwide. With more Democratically controlled statehouses now in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, now is the time to open up the floodgates on expanding voting rights and helping more voters get to the polls.
Holy crap, what an amazing night! Where do we even begin this week's episode of The Downballot? Well, we know exactly where: abortion. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard recap Tuesday's extraordinary results, starting with a clear-eyed examination of the issue that animated Democrats as never before—and that pundits got so badly wrong. They also discuss candidate quality (still really important!), Democratic meddling in GOP primaries (good for democracy, actually), and "soft" Biden disapprovers (lots of them voted for Democrats).