Does paper size matter for printing absentee ballots?

Post date: 2018-10-13 17:42:51

I am overseas and voting absentee in a Florida election. I was emailed a PDF ballot to print and mail. Does the size of the paper I use to print the ballot matter? I don't want to invalidate my ballot by printing on the wrong size paper.

I understand that absentee ballots are optically scanned. However, I can't find any information about whether the size of the paper to be scanned matters. Nothing in the instruction sheet provided mentions anything about the size of the printouts. (I have emailed the local elections authority, but have not received a response.)

I printed the ballot PDF scaled onto A4 paper (8.27 × 11.69 inches), but note that the type is quite tiny. When I print the PDF at full size, it is slightly longer than an A3 sheet of paper (11.69 x 16.53 inches) and doesn't fit onto a single sheet. I tried printing scaled to the larger A3 paper and trimming the edges. That's close to the actual size of the PDF, but not exact. (Maybe the original PDF is meant for US-tabloid size?)

I'm not sure which is appropriate, or if the size even matters. I found this explanation and this one, but it doesn't answer the question either.

Does anyone know how the optical scanners actually work, and is any standard size of paper printout acceptable?

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