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Fact check: You can vote only once, no matter how many ballot applications you receive

Jozsef Papp, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: A couple in Illinois will request five vote by mail ballots and get to vote five times

As the November election nears, misinformation about voting by mail is abundant.

A post on the Facebook page Just the Facts includes an image of five ballot requests mailed to the same address from the Fayette County (Illinois) Clerk & Recorder’s Office. The caption claims the couple who live there would be able to simply fill out the requests, mail them in and be sent five ballots. "Two people will be able to cast 5 votes with no one the wiser," it says.

"Using 'vote by mail' instead of standard voting and absentee ballots will lead to widespread voter fraud," the post claims. "If you want secure elections, oppose 'vote by mail.'"

The post has been shared over 1,000 times since Aug. 7.

More: Where you can vote by mail, absentee ballot in the 2020 election

You get to vote once

A spokesperson with the Illinois State Board of Elections told the Associated Press a plan to request five ballots would not likely work and it is illegal.

“If you attempt to mail back an application filling in someone’s name in order to get a ballot, you are committing a felony,” Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, told the Associated Press. “Not to mention the election authority is going to invalidate your application because they will compare the signature of the voter and notice it doesn’t match.”

More: Fact check: Postal Service will deliver ballots with insufficient or unpaid postage

Dietrich told the AP that voters who are ready to mail completed ballots must sign a legal attestation on the envelope and then election judges will verify the signature before the ballot is counted, which is the same standard used when voting in person.

The Kane County, Illinois, Clerk, John Cunningham, responded to the post in a tweet, stating his office had alerted voters that other candidates and organizations were sending vote by mail applications "and discussed safeguards in place to prevent voters from receiving more than one ballot."

The clerk’s office, in anticipation of the November election, has plans in place to verify and authenticate vote by mail ballot signatures, new vote by mail equipment to increase processing speed and ballot tracking for voters, Cunningham also tweeted.

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Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed a law requiring local election authorities to send a vote-by-mail application to any registered voter who participated in the 2018 general, 2019 consolidated or 2020 primary election by Aug. 1.

"In the face of a pandemic, massive economic upheaval, and renewed calls for racial justice, it’s more important than ever that Illinoisans can hold accountable a truly representative and transparent government – and that means ensuring all eligible residents can wield their right to vote in a way that doesn’t risk their personal health," Pritzker posted to Facebook the day he signed the legislation in June.

Dietrich told the AP that even if people fill out more than one ballot request application, they will only receive one ballot.

A clerk for Fayette County told the AP the original post was “misinformation.”

Fayette County Clerk Jessica Barker told a local radio station on Aug. 12 that her office "verifies voter application signatures" with permanent voter records as ballot applications are received. Voters are notified if there are discrepancies and have 10 days to update signatures; ballots are rejected if signatures are not updated.

Our rating: False

We rate the claim that voters can cast more than one ballot as FALSE, based on our research. Requesting more than one vote-by-mail ballot and submitting more than one ballot is illegal and could result in felony charges being filed. It is common for multiple ballot request applications to be sent out ahead of the election and by more than just the local election office.

Our fact check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: You vote once, even if you receive multiple ballot forms