Any voter who is taking the trouble to vote absentee (and it is a very time-consuming process) should not then be held to further scrutiny because of their penmanship. This is ridiculous. In order to cast an absentee ballot, you have to apply, wait for the ballot (this takes 3-4 weeks), have a witness presentand prepared to sign as a witness before you even open the sealed ballot, cast your vote with a number two pencil and then send it in. Now, on top of this, you want perfectly legible handwriting! If most of our politicans had to cast absentee ballots and penmanship was a criteria for counting their votes, then most of their votes would not count! Get real people. Please do not create more ways for votes not to count.