A vote-by-mail ballot in Duval County. | File photo, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 14, 2026 at 1:05 pm
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Q: The primary election is well underway. You can vote by mail, participate in early voting or vote on Election Day, which is Tuesday.
Mail-in voters must return their ballots by Tuesday in order to be counted.
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Under Florida Statute 101.68, signatures tied to mail-in ballots must be verified by the elections office to match the signature on your ID.
Jacksonville Today reader Bob K. worries about what this means for him.
“I am elderly and disabled,” he writes. “Because transportation for me is complicated and expensive, I vote by mail. I’m able to sign my name using an adaptive device called a universal cuff, which helps me grip a pen.”
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Bob says his signatures are legible but they are not identical from year to year.
“A signature today will almost certainly not match the touch-screen, finger-scrolled signature on my recent state-issued ID,” he says.
“Is a poll worker able to challenge my ballot because they don’t like the appearance of my legally valid signature? And could any resulting delay cost me my right to vote?”:
A: A poll worker can challenge your ballot, but it should not cost you your right to vote.
Jerry Holland, Duval County’s supervisor of elections, says that if his staff judges a signature to be mismatched, the case goes to a canvassing board, which is made up of a representative from all three branches of the government.
The board considers notes they have on an individual — for example, whether they have a documented disability.
RELATED: Read Jacksonville Today’s 2026 Voter Guides
“We’ll look to try to identify any way possible that the signature matches in those kinds of situations. It’s hard to hypothetically say what we’re looking at when they’ve had an injury. … But we give all due consideration to try to look at the signature and what’s there.”
Of the 18,000 ballots counted so far for this election in Duval County, only about 25 have been rejected because of a signature discrepancy, Holland says.
In the case of a rejection, the person is notified. They are given until 5 p.m. the Thursday after the election to bring their ID to the Elections Office.
It is much more likely, Hollands says, that a person would forget to sign the ballot at all than to have it rejected for a mismatched signature.
Physical disability, even one that prevents you from signing your name, will not cost you your right to vote, Holland says.
There are accommodations. “ If a person has gotten to the point where they can’t sign their signature, then what they can do is they can fill out an updated voter registration form,” Holland says. Someone will assist them with the form, and on the signature line they’ll make a mark — an X or a line.
“So there’s ways to accommodate those who have some kind of physical disability in their signature, and we will assist them with that to give them suggestions,“ Holland says.
The best way to go about getting accommodations is to call the Elections Office with your specific concern, he says.
