ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Local election officials expect thousands of voters to use absentee ballots for the upcoming election. While mailing in a ballot is safe, there are times when it can be rejected for mistakes.

“One of the challenges we’re having is that some voters are not filling out their ballot envelopes completely,” said Winnebago County Clerk Lori Gummow. “We want to remind people to make sure you are reading the instructions, it’ll give you step-by-step process so that you are able to accurately turn in your ballot.”

Gummow says most mistakes are common and fixable.

“The most common thing that we are finding in reviewing the ballots are people are forgetting the signature at the bottom of the ballot envelope,” she said.

The signature on the ballot envelope must match the one the clerk’s office has of file with your voter registration.

“If there is a problem with the mail-in ballot, such as a signature that is missing, we will be sending out letters and a way that they can respond to that to get their ballot counted,” Gummow said.

Both Winnebago County and Boone County have websites where voters can track their ballot.

“You can go in, put your information in and be able to see when we’ve received the ballot, and then finally once that panel has reviewed it, you can see when it’s been accepted or rejected so they have an idea of what’s going on,” Gummow said.

A mail-in ballot can still be requested, but time is running out.

“Be patient with the vote-by-mail process, because we have to bring them in, make sure that it is [your] ballot, and to record on the website [when it all gets] updated, so we just ask a lot of people, this year especially, be patient with the voting process,” Gummow concluded.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day.

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