Boardman v. Esteva 323 So.2d 259. 323 So.2d 259 (Cite as: 323 So.2d 259) Page 8 manner. There is no magic in the statutory requirements. If they are complied with to the extent that the duly responsible election officials can ascertain that the electors whose votes are being canvassed are qualified and registered to vote, and that they do so in a proper manner, then who can be heard to complain that the statute has not been literally and absolutely complied with? Strict compliance is not some sacred formula nothing short of which can guarantee the purity of the ballot. See reference to the case of Attorney General ex rel. Miller v. Miller, 266 Mich. 127, 253 N.W. 241, quoted with approval by this Court in Jolley, supra. See also, Anderson v. Budzien, 12 Wis.2d 530, 107 N.W.2d 496 (1961), where the Wisconsin Supreme Court, holding that the legislative intent in enacting the absentee voter statutes is to encourage and assist qualified voters to cast their ballots for candidates of their choice, recognized that in order to prevent fraud the Legislature specifically stated that in some instances there must be strict compliance with the statute or a ballot cannot be counted. However, the Court said that where the Legislature has not so expressly provided for strict compliance, any provisions are directory and strict compliance therewith is not required. Accord, McMaster v. Wilkinson, 145 Neb. 39, 15 N.W.2d 348 (1944), where the court cited our decision in Rinehart, supra, for the rule of strict construction of absentee voting laws, and then held: 'It is the policy of the law to prevent as far as possible the disfranchisement of electors who have cast their ballots in good faith, and while the technical requirements set forth in the absentee voting law are mandatory, yet in meeting these requirements laws are construed so that a substantial compliance therewith is all that is required.' 15 N.W.2d, at 353. Some of the errors alleged in McMaster were similar to some of those alleged here. Although some of the ballots were invalidated as a result of the errors, in other cases the court held that although the statute had not been strictly complied with, where there had been substantial compliance the absentee ballots were valid. For example, 21 ballots were held to be valid although the title of the election officer did not appear on the ballot next to the officer's signature as required by law. However, a ballot was declared void where the notary failed to fill out the elector's certificate identifying the voter. [8] Having decided that substantial compliance with the requirements of the absentee voting statute is all that is required to give legality to the absentee ballots, we now turn to the remaining issues. First, there is the question of the 429 missing *268 outer envelopes containing the statutorily required absentee voters' affidavits, which were either lost or destroyed by the canvassing boards in Glades, Hendry and Polk counties. It is not alleged that any of the ballots were in fact defective, rather it is contended that since the return envelopes containing the ballots cast by the voters were not preserved by the election officials as required by Fla.Stat. s 101.68(1), F.S.A., thus defeating any judicial review of the ballots, then all the ballots should be thrown out. But even if we agreed with this contention and required all the ballots to be thrown out, it would not necessitate the invalidation of all the absentee ballots cast, even though the number (429) would be more than enough to change the result of the election. The general rule is that where the number of invalid absentee ballots is more than enough to change the result of the election, then the election shall be determined solely upon the basis of the machine vote. Frink, supra. The reason for the rule is that since all the ballots have been commingled and it is impossible to distinguish the good ballots from the bad, because all ballots are required by law to be unidentifiable, then in fairness all the ballots must be thrown out. In other words, it is impossible to tell for whom the invalid ballots were cast since they were commingled with the valid ballots. The rule is not applicable here because the outer envelopes for All of the absentee ballots in these three counties were lost. Therefore, assuming that all the ballots were invalid due to the missing envelopes, there is no problem with distinguishing the good ballots from the bad because they all would be bad. Therefore, even if we invalidated all 429 ballots because of missing envelopes, we would only be required to reduce the total number of votes cast for petitioner and respondent rather than throw out all the absentee ballots cast. These 429 have not been commingled with ballots from other counties. The result would be that the 292 votes Boardman received in those three counties would be subtracted from his total and the 137 votes Esteva received from those three counties would also be deducted from his total, still leaving Boardman with an overall majority of 94 votes. © 2006 Thomson/West. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works. 161