This time, South Florida election departments stayed on schedule — and out of the spotlight
While a handful of presidential battleground states were still sweating out vote counts at week’s end, South Florida’s election departments — infamous for controversies and delays — were quietly wrapping up their work.
On Friday, they also reported low numbers of rejected mail-in ballots — about 325 in Broward County and around 3,120 in Miami-Dade County — that had tainted past election tallies.
In both counties, election officials said education, drop-off boxes at polls and interaction with voters to correct signatures on mail-in ballots helped prevent common mistakes found in the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 state election.
Florida law allowed election staffers to open and scan mail-in ballots before Election Day on Tuesday, which is why Miami-Dade and Broward counties stayed ahead of the game.
“We don’t do it like they do in Pennsylvania,” said Steve Vancore, a spokesman for the Broward elections department, referring to the plodding post-election tally of mail-in ballots in the Keystone State.
With the coronavirus pandemic hanging over the general election, record numbers of voters opted to vote by mail rather than at polling places during early voting or on Tuesday. Most voters posted their ballots in the mail, but many others drove to the dozens of early voting sites in Miami-Dade to ensure their votes were delivered with certainty and on time.
Miami-Dade Deputy Supervisor of Elections Suzy Trutie said “voters dropping off their ballots at drop boxes, where they present their ID” made a “critical difference” in the low error rate because officials could guarantee their ballot envelopes were signed properly.
In Miami-Dade, 3,119 mail-in ballots cast in the general election were rejected by the county’s canvassing board, mainly because voters failed to sign their names on ballot envelopes or their signatures did not match those on record. That figure is dwarfed by the county’s total vote-by-mail count of 510,830 — amounting to a rejection rate of 0.5%. That’s less than half the ballot error rate in the 2016 presidential election.
Another category of Miami-Dade votes that could not be counted: 131 tardy mail-in ballots that arrived after the closing of polls at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
A similar picture emerged in Broward, which experienced substantial turmoil in the 2018 Florida election because of its failure to count tens of thousands of mail-in ballots in a timely fashion amid three tight statewide races, including for governor.
Vancore, the spokesman for the Broward elections department, said only 322 mail-in ballots cast in the general election were rejected because of signature issues or some other problem. That is a tiny fraction of the county’s total vote-by-mail count of 474,163 — resulting in a rejection rate of less than 0.1%
He added that another 191 mail-in ballots could not be counted because they arrived after Tuesday’s deadline.
“We had a ridiculously low number of defective ballots,” Vancore said, citing the benefit of voter education, social media advertising and the steady processing of vote-by-mail ballots.
Vancore said that not only were drop-off boxes at early voting sites crucial, but the elections department regularly picked up ballots gathered at a general mail facility. Miami-Dade also did regular ballot pickups at a general mail facility through early voting and Election Day.
Dan Smith, a University of Florida political science professor and election expert, said state officials have paid increasing attention to mail-in ballots because of the recent history of tight presidential races in Florida, going back to the notorious recount in 2000.
“You’re seeing a lot more vigilance [today] about voting by mail by the elections departments and political parties,” Smith said. “They didn’t care that much in the past. As a result, there was more attention on the overall vote. But that changed because of the expected closeness of this election.”
There is still some work to be done. Florida’s canvassing boards, including those in Miami-Dade and Broward, must certify an unofficial vote for the general election by noon Saturday.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 5:42 PM.
