This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
When Hamtramck voted for its new mayor and council this past November, something stuck out in the final results: an exceptional number of cured ballots.
In a city of less than 28,000 people, with only 4,747 ballots cast, 120 voters worked with the city clerk’s office after the election to fix, or “cure,” issues with their signatures on their absentee ballot envelopes. In the same election, the much larger city of Detroit — which was also electing a new mayor and council — had only 72 voters cure their ballots out of more than 115,000 ballots cast.
But the massive number of cured ballots in Hamtramck wasn’t prompted by anything nefarious. Instead, it was simply an effective effort from enthusiastic mayoral campaigns to ensure every vote counted, relying on the close-knit immigrant networks of the city. Several voters told Votebeat they cured their ballots not after hearing from city officials, but after hearing from an uncle, a brother, or a neighbor that their vote had not yet counted — and that it wouldn’t, unless they fixed their signature.
“I think the campaigns were calling old ladies out of their beds,” Abe Siblani, Hamtramck’s deputy city clerk, joked in December about the incredible number of voters who cured their ballots. Wayne County election data shows that in elections from February 2024 through August 2025, just a single Hamtramck voter had cured their ballot, back in August 2024.
The ability to cure ballots with missing or mismatched signatures is relatively new in Michigan, brought into existence by the passage of 2022’s Ballot Proposal 2. If election workers decide that the signature on an absentee ballot envelope doesn’t match what’s on file for that voter, that voter has until 5 p.m. on the Friday following the election to fix it and have their vote counted.
But the idea of campaigns, political organizations, or even state parties encouraging voters to cure their ballots is anything but new. Part of the effort comes from a noble idea that every vote should count. But much of it is because those groups want to win — and that means squeezing every last vote out of their supporters.
It’s a lot of work, but it makes a difference, Charlene Fernandez, chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, told Votebeat.
“Every vote matters, and it can change an election,” she said, pointing to the 2022 attorney general race in her state as the perfect example. Democrats there worked to cure thousands of ballots in the race, and Democrat Kris Mayes won by just 511 votes.
“It was a matter of hundreds,” Fernandez said. “Not thousands. They all mattered.”
What does ballot curing look like?
The need for ballots to sometimes be cured stems from the fact that absentee voters must sign their ballot envelopes. Those signatures are then checked against the ones election officials have on file as a deterrent against fraud.
When election officials determine that the signature on a ballot envelope doesn’t match what is on file (or that the voter forgot to sign the envelope altogether), Michigan clerks have an obligation to notify that voter immediately.
For some voters, that notification will prompt them to go to their clerk’s office and cure their signature. But overwhelmingly, campaigns find that’s not quite enough for every voter. If a voter doesn’t fix their signature within the proper timeline, their vote won’t count.
In the Hamtramck mayoral election — which was decided by just 11 votes (although the outcome is being disputed in court) — candidate Muhith Mahmood said his campaign started calling people after the city released a list of voters whose ballots would be rejected unless they were cured.
“We knocked doors, we called people. If somebody knows that person, they call them, they knock on their door,” Mahmood said, noting that cured ballots ultimately ended up helping his opponent, now-Mayor Adam Alharbi, more than they helped him in the race. “I just tried to do the right thing, to make sure people are heard.”
Curing in Michigan requires voters to fill out a form supplying their signature and return it to their clerk in person or via mail or email. If their signature doesn’t match what’s on file, they can check a box affirming that their signature has changed over time.
In many states, curing has been a standard practice for years. In Arizona, for example, parties — and sometimes outside groups with a particular interest in certain races — have worked for more than a decade to get voters to cure their ballots after an election. Arizona requires election officials to make “reasonable efforts” to contact a voter, but Fernandez said that cure operations run by the campaigns, developed and perfected over years, are often more efficient.
Volunteers work to get the list of voters whose ballots need to be cured, she said, and then they start reaching out to them.
“You can’t bring in your normal volunteers that canvas or do phone-banking or text-banking,” Fernandez said. “This has to be a group of people that understand what curing is, how to make those phone calls and how to follow up.”
Curing can be tricky, because it’s something the voter has to do for themselves.
“You really have to train people to understand how important it is and impart that information to people they’re calling,” she said.
Some Republicans oppose ballot curing
Not everyone thinks that curing is a great idea. In a number of states, it’s not allowed — if your signature doesn’t match, your vote won’t be counted. But some believe that cured ballots can be ripe for abuse.
Former Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, said it was critical that states that allow ballot curing ensure it is applied evenly across the board by local officials. He warned that there is a perception that curing can be used by “decision makers” to target certain voters more likely to support their preferred candidate to boost their odds.
“There is a perception that they use this opportunity to get those ballots turned in after the election for their candidate to either catch up or extend their lead,” Merrill said. Alabama does not have a curing process, and he said he did not advocate for it while secretary.
Part of the reason why is the argument, made by Merrill and Republicans across the country, that elections should end on Election Day.
Curing, the argument goes, allows voting to continue. Although Michigan’s cured ballots arrive before the close of voting on Election Day, they are cured — i.e., voters are given a second chance to provide a valid signature — on the Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday after. Cured ballots are tabulated separately from undisputed ones, and they can sway particularly close elections, as they almost did in Hamtramck.
What’s next for ballot curing in Michigan?
It’s likely that, going forward, more Michigan voters will hear from outside groups urging them to cure their ballots. The lists of voters whose ballots need to be cured are public, and interested groups are taking note.
Michigan GOP Chair Jim Runestad didn’t answer questions about whether his party has launched or is considering launching curing operations, although other state Republican parties have them. Michigan Democrats, however, say they have an operation in full swing.
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said he sees the party’s curing efforts as a logical next step to its voter protection efforts. MDP’s efforts are focused within certain geographic areas, sometimes driven by where volunteers are available to knock on doors.
It’s not clear if there has been any tangible difference in an election’s outcome because of MDP’s efforts, Hertel told Votebeat, but he said the reception from voters has been warm.
“I think everyone, especially with the Trump administration coming out and saying they’re going to try to take over elections in Michigan, knowing that someone is on their side … to make sure their vote is counted is incredibly important to people,” he said. “It’s really hard to convince somebody to be a part of the process if they think their vote is not going to count.”
It’s not a secret that a huge impetus behind this work is how it can help win elections. Hertel emphasized that the MDP believes that it will win any election that is “free and fair,” making it important that people are heard.
But party officials say large-scale curing initiatives are a matter of ensuring voters get heard. Even when people hear their ballots may not count if they don’t fix them, it can take a few reminders to ensure a person actually does so.
“Both parties care about that. They want their voice heard,” Fernandez said. “It’s important to everyone that every ballot runs its course and is counted.”
Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org.
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