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Florida won't challenge vote-by-mail ruling

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's top election official is going to accept a ruling that says the state must give thousands of voters a chance to make sure their vote-by-mail ballots are counted.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Monday told county election supervisors that they needed to follow the order issued by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. Walker ruled that county election offices should notify voters if their signature on a vote-by-mail ballot and their voter registration forms don't match.

Walker called the state's current law on those ballots "illogical" and "bizarre" because voters who forget to sign their vote-by-mail ballots are notified and given a chance to fix the problem. But voters whose signatures don't match aren't told about the problem until after the election is over.

Meredith Beatrice, a spokeswoman for Detzner, said the state had no plans to appeal Walker's ruling.

The Florida Democratic Party challenged the state law governing mismatched signatures.