El Paso County Clerk notifies voters about ballot discrepancies

The midterm elections may be over, but it’s not the end of the road for thousands of El Paso County ballots.

The county clerk’s office found nearly 1,600 ballots with missing signatures or signatures that did not match the voter’s records.

“We have a bipartisan team to review any signature that’s in question. We send out a letter to the voter, if it is in question, we give them the opportunity to make it good,” El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams said.

More than 200 voters have already responded to the clerk’s office and helped clear up the discrepancies. Their votes are counted as soon as the signature issue is solved.

“It may be a legitimate issue where the signature has changed over time, or it might be someone else trying to turn in another person’s ballot,” Williams said.

If the clerk’s office notified a voter about a ballot discrepancy, the voter must respond by Nov. 12.

The clerk’s office will forward any remaining cases to the district attorney’s office to investigate whether or not voter fraud was committed.

Despite the new vote-by-mail and same-day registration system, Williams said the number of ballot discrepancies has not increased.

“It’s usually less than 1 percent. That hasn’t changed. That was the same in 2012,” Williams said.