USA Today: Fact check: Georgia ballot curing is not election fraud

11.6.2020 / By Abby Patkin
USA Today: Fact check: Georgia ballot curing is not election fraud

“We’re all hands on deck right now to make sure that we can get folks who had to vote provisionally, that they’re able to cure their ballots,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, the state’s chapter of the national nonpartisan watchdog group. Most counties are almost done counting their outstanding absentee ballots, she said.  Common Cause Georgia requests lists of provisional voters from individual counties, and then volunteers reach out to those voters via text banking, phone banking or door-to-door knocking to inform them how they can cure their ballots, Dennis explained. On Friday, the organization hopes to reach 3,000 voters who cast provisional ballots, she said. “It’s a big effort, but we want to make sure that every vote in Georgia counts,” Dennis said, adding, “We want to make sure that every voter has equitable access to the ballot and to the balloting process, and every vote is counted in Georgia.” Responding to claims that ballot curing is equivalent to election fraud, Dennis said, “the curing process has been accessible for public viewing, so we definitely want to debunk those claims. That’s just fodder, and there’s no basis to those claims.” 

With razor-thin margins in several battleground states and many people — including President Donald Trump — pushing unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, some social media users are pointing to the practice of ballot curing as another Democratic attempt to “steal” the election. …

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 states require that voters be notified when there is a missing signature or signature discrepancy on their mail-in ballot and also be given an opportunity to correct it.  …

In Georgia, voters have until three days after the election — Nov. 6, in 2020 — to “cure” their rejected ballot by submitting a copy of their identification and an affidavit confirming the ballot is theirs. …

“We’re all hands on deck right now to make sure that we can get folks who had to vote provisionally, that they’re able to cure their ballots,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, the state’s chapter of the national nonpartisan watchdog group. Most counties are almost done counting their outstanding absentee ballots, she said.

“It’s a big effort, but we want to make sure that every vote in Georgia counts,” Dennis said, adding, “We want to make sure that every voter has equitable access to the ballot and to the balloting process, and every vote is counted in Georgia.”

Responding to claims that ballot curing is equivalent to election fraud, Dennis said, “the curing process has been accessible for public viewing, so we definitely want to debunk those claims. That’s just fodder, and there’s no basis to those claims.”

Georgia voters have until 5 p.m. Friday to cure rejected ballots and can check the status of their mail-in or provisional ballot through the state’s website. However, the state’s election results won’t be certified until Nov. 13.

“We’re telling people to remain patient around our process, because our process is actually working,” Dennis said. “We need to allow the time to let the process work to make sure that every ballot is counted.”

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