[05/31/01] The City Clerk’s Office has been returning absentee ballots at a rate of about 15 a day because of incomplete applications and forms, City Clerk Walter Osborne said Thursday.

Thursday morning, Osborne had another stack of ballots received in advance of Tuesday’s election on his desk ready to be mailed back. He said about 200 absentee ballots have been returned so far.

Most of the problems, he said, stem from voters not signing the outside of the envelopes or failing to sign across the flap as specified in instructions.

“That’s the reason we have sent about half of them back,” Osborne said.

As of Wednesday, 348 absentee ballots had been cast in voting for the city’s three elective positions. State law allows any voter who will be out of town on election day, who is 65 or older or physically disabled to vote in advance in person or by mail.

Applications that include the resident’s address and reason for voting absentee must be completed and returned to the City Clerk’s Office. The envelope containing the ballot must be signed across the sealed flap to indicate the ballot has not been tampered with.

Once cast, the absentee ballots are sealed until polls close on election day. If the signature on the envelope does not cross the flap, election officials do not scan the ballot to be counted in precinct totals.

Osborne said the ballots are being returned so voters can have another chance to conform with the requirements for a legal ballot.

“The same day we get them, we send them right back,” he said.

The City Clerk’s Office will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon to accept absentee ballots. Mailed ballots must be received by 5 p.m. Monday.

Certified totals from the May 1 primary elections show 6,229 voters cast ballots. In 1997, 5,722 ballots were cast in the Democratic primary. There was no Republican primary four years ago. In the 1997 general election, 8,867 were cast.

The latest count from the City Clerk’s Office shows poll books listing 17,603 people eligible to vote in the municipal election.

In the general election, there are two ballots, one for the North Ward and one for the South. Each will have the names of all of the candidates for alderman in that ward and for mayor, regardless of party.

Mayoral candidates are incumbent Mayor Robert Walker, 57, who won the Democratic nomination in the May 1 primary, and independents Eva Marie Ford, 63, Laurence Leyens, 37, and former mayor Joe Loviza, 61.

In the North Ward, the names of two-term incumbent Gertrude Young, 45, who defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary, and independent Sylvester Walker, 40, will be on the ballot.

For the South Ward alderman’s seat, the names of the Republican primary winner, Sidney H. Beauman Jr., 52, and Democratic primary winner, Pam Johnson, 35, will appear on the ballot along with those of independents Vickie Bailey, 33, and Ashlea Mosley, 18.