Registrar issues reminder about witness signature for mail-in ballots
10/7/2021, 6 p.m.
Richmond Voter Registrar Keith G. Balmer on Wednesday warned that voters using mail-in ballots to vote in the Nov. 2 election must have the return envelope countersigned by a witness — a requirement that was suspended before the governor ended the pandemic emergency during the summer.
“So far, more than 100 voters have returned ballots that were not witnessed,” Mr. Balmer said in a text to the Free Press. “We’re reaching out to voters to try to get them to ‘cure’ the ballots by getting them witnessed. Otherwise, those ballots will be rejected.”
The requirement to have a witness sign an absentee ballot envelope was suspended by court orders in the 2020 November election and the June 2021 primary due to the pandemic. But no such court orders have been sought or issued ahead of the upcoming election, resulting in the state law governing a witness for mail-in ballots being back in full force.
