Surge In Absentee Ballot Applications Means Counties Must Verify Thousands of Signatures

Lisa Maldonado, a flight attendant from Peachtree City, has never voted by mail. But when she got an absentee ballot application in the mail last month, she filled it out, signed it and sent it in.

Then, she got a voicemail from the Fayette County Elections office.

“So I called back and was told that there were too many vowels in my signature compared to my signature in the past,” said Maldonado. “And I said, ‘well, look at my name, it has a lot of vowels in it.’”