There has been confusion and concern among some voters in Jefferson County over whether their absentee ballots would be counted in the November election.

Earlier this month, an unknown number of county residents cast their absentee ballots using a waiver that Jefferson County sent them saying they did not have to have witnesses or a notary sign their absentee ballots. The waivers were sent out after U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon ruled that those requirements could be waived this year for voters who were 65 and older with an underlying medical condition, an action taken to avoid putting them at greater risk during the pandemic.

But two weeks later, on Oct. 13, a higher court overruled Kallon and reinstated the witness requirement.

County officials said in a statement Monday that ballots postmarked on or before Oct. 13 will be counted. But residents who returned ballots with the waiver postmarked after that date were instructed to call the county’s absentee election manager.

However, the phone number listed on the notice went to a different county office: civil court. The person who answered said she couldn’t help and that voters would need to call a different phone number — one that wasn’t publicized — for answers.

The statement said the county had a course of action ready for absentee ballots filed with the waiver after the latest court ruling.

“Jefferson County Absentee Elections Manager, Jackie Anderson-Smith, has a plan in place to address and contact voters that are identified to correct any deficiencies,” the statement said. “All of this is being done in consultation with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office.”

But Secretary of State John Merrill, reached by phone Monday evening, said ballots without signatures or a notary received outside of Sept. 30 through Oct. 13 — the window during which the waivers were valid — will not count.

Buzzfeed published a story this weekend saying that voting rights groups had sent a letter to Jefferson County on Oct. 21 asking that voters be notified of the issue and given a plan to “cure” their ballots.

The county’s statement Monday said it published the order reinstating the witness requirement and that no waivers were mailed after Oct. 13.

Merrill said the county should have separated ballots cast with a waiver from those that weren’t after the federal court reinstated the requirement. That would have made it easier to know how many ballots were in question and quickly identify those voters. But it’s unclear whether local officials did that.

“I don’t know what they were doing,” Merrill said. “I know what they were told to do.”

Merrill said voters caught in the balance could cast a provisional ballot in person on Election Day. Otherwise, Anderson-Smith, the absentee election manager, would need to determine whether there’s another way to legally count ballots cast without witnesses after the ruling. That might involve affidavits signed in person with witnesses at the county courthouse.

Merrill was vexed by Kallon’s ruling.

“You know what’s frustrating is when you have a liberal activist jurist who inserts him or herself in the elections process,” he said, “and whenever someone does that and changes the rules in the middle of the process, it causes confusion.”

Statewide, more than 206,000 absentee ballots have been returned for the November election, a record for Alabama.

Jefferson County has had a difficult time keeping up with large numbers of voters showing up to cast absentee ballots in person and processing hundreds of pieces of voter mail each day.

Efforts to reach Jefferson County election officials Monday night were unsuccessful.