Right here’s what I discovered testing Arizona’s poll signature checking course of

I’m observing a bubbly cursive signature on a display with a loop within the letter T. It appears to be like the identical because the T’s in different signatures on the display. I click on “approve.”

I scrutinized letters like this time and again as I sat at Maricopa County’s elections headquarters in downtown Phoenix final month. It was simpler than I assumed to identify consistencies – and inconsistencies – within the signatures on the display in entrance of me.

A final title that trailed off in a definite method? Approve. Letters that modified from one signature to the subsequent? Mark for additional evaluate.

I obtained going fairly shortly at instances – approving a signature each three seconds or so – however then I might decelerate because the voice inside my head jogged my memory that this was an important process. I used to be figuring out potential forgery on ballots – and I used to be unqualified to do it.

That is how Arizona, and most states, verify the identification of these casting mail ballots – by evaluating the “voter affidavit signature” on the skin of the poll envelope with a previous instance or examples of the voter’s signature within the county’s data. 

I used to be taking a look at actual signatures on actual ballots, however this was solely a take a look at run to raised perceive the system. The county is permitting the media to come back strive their hand at verifying signatures as a result of I’m not the one one with questions.

As GOP candidates and leaders have known as into query the safety of practically each aspect of Arizona’s election system lately, the signature verification course of has been significantly scrutinized. GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has claimed fraudulent signatures had been a part of what brought on her to lose by greater than 17,000 votes to Gov. Katie Hobbs, although courts have to date determined she doesn’t have proof to show this declare.

And because the 2024 election cycle begins, the challenges to this method that took root in 2022 are rising, not dissipating.

There are two ongoing lawsuits from Lake: Her newest attraction of her gubernatorial loss, and one other case through which she is asking a choose to declare that voter signatures from the midterm election are public data. 

However the problem that’s arguably probably the most consequential for 2024 and past is a case filed by the Arizona Republican Occasion and different conservative teams in Yavapai County Superior Courtroom, which challenges what voter data county recorders can use to check signatures. The case may result in extra rejected signatures sooner or later. 

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is watching that case as he makes an attempt to finalize a brand new model of the large rulebook that dictates the main points of how election officers within the state run elections, the Elections Procedures Handbook. He famous in his newest model despatched to the governor earlier this month that there’s a pending case on the matter.

The lawsuits increase a query about whether or not signature verification is one of the simplest ways to confirm an early voter’s identification – a query that election consultants and people of various political leanings have been asking for years as a result of it’s an imprecise and subjective course of. Voting rights activists fear a mismatched or lacking signature may result in voter disenfranchisement, whereas GOP candidates and election officers declare it permits for fraud.

The controversy is especially essential in Arizona, the place voters can request an early poll within the mail with no excuse wanted and the overwhelming majority of voters use this technique to vote, as a substitute of voting in particular person.

How Arizona verifies early ballots has nationwide implications, too, as a result of this course of is the explanation why the state’s presidential outcomes are delayed. In November 2022, Maricopa County acquired round 290,000 early ballots on Election Day, and it took employees days to evaluate the signatures on them so the ballots may very well be counted.

With all eyes on this course of, I needed to see firsthand the way it works.

Lake’s most important grievance towards Maricopa County’s system is that employees transfer too quick to determine fraudulent signatures. Her workforce’s evaluation discovered that some midterm election employees had been approving a signature each second or two.

Her workforce was trying on the first-level evaluate the signatures undergo. These employees, sometimes momentary workers employed only for this goal, have three samples to check the poll signature to. Of the signatures this employee approves, a portion will in the end be audited. If the employee marks the signature for additional evaluate, referred to as an “exception,” the signature goes on to a supervisor with extra coaching and all the voter’s signatures on file to check to. That supervisor makes the ultimate name on whether or not the county wants to succeed in out to the voter to attempt to get affirmation from them that it was their poll. If the county can’t attain the voter, the poll is rejected.

I used to be performing as a Degree 1 employee for my demo. I didn’t undergo the eight-hour coaching these employees obtain, however was briefed on what it entails. Particularly, they’re advised that they aren’t in search of the signatures to match – however to be constant. For instance, is it cursive or print; was it written quick or sluggish; is it slanted; is it the complete or partial title; and what do a few of the signature options appear to be, such because the loop on an L.

In steerage to native officers, a federal election safety council famous that this sort of evaluate ought to take lower than 30 seconds per signature.

I used to be stunned throughout my demo to seek out that, more often than not, only a look on the signature – targeted on the type of writing and sure letters alone – was sufficient for me to approve it. There’s solely so some ways you may write an N, however seeing the way in which that one voter made a big curve on the high of the letter the identical method every time, I used to be assured it was the identical voter signing the poll.

Till I wasn’t. 

“I wish to inform John to get extra constant,” I stated out loud at one level, repeatedly scrolling via the three signature samples I had for a voter named John earlier than sending that poll for additional evaluate. 

County officers assured me that by the point any poll obtained to a mailbox, the county had already checked repeatedly to ensure it was going to the proper place and would attain the voter – first by sending out a voter registration card when somebody new registers to vote, and secondly by sending a mailer to the voter 90 days previous to the election to ensure they’re nonetheless residing on the deal with they supplied.

If these mailings come again as undeliverable, the county tries to contact the voter to allow them to know, utilizing any new forwarding addresses supplied. This voter solely stays in lively standing — which means they’re despatched an early poll — in the event that they verify their right deal with with the county.

The state additionally repeatedly cleans its voter rolls utilizing databases that notify them if somebody strikes or dies, and participates within the cross-state voter database known as the Digital Registration Info Middle, which ought to notify counties if a voter registers in one other state. 

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, argues with the important thing premise underlying claims of widespread signature fraud within the county’s elections. He advised me there’s by no means been a sign that somebody is stealing ballots en masse out of the mail.

“If we began getting experiences of complete neighborhoods lacking ballots, we’d examine,” he stated. “If we began getting experiences of USPS vans being attacked, we’d examine. There’s no motive to consider any of that has ever occurred.”

I requested the county workers who I sat with throughout my demo to drag up my signatures from previous elections and was stunned to see how a lot my signature has modified over time, dropping a letter or two in my final title alongside the way in which and customarily being written with extra haste.

However all of the signatures taken collectively, particularly with the way in which I’ve at all times written the F in my final title, would most likely sign to a employee it was me.

As I simulated the method, I used to be glad to have a number of different signatures from every voter for comparability. “That will make me nervous if there was just one to go on,” I advised the county officers who had been sitting with me.

However the pending case in Yavapai County may make for fewer comparisons statewide, if the case reaches the Arizona Supreme Courtroom. 

In Yavapai, the state GOP is arguing that state legislation doesn’t permit for recorders to take a look at voter signatures from previous elections – simply from when a voter registers to vote or updates their registration. Whereas the case is pending, the Yavapai County choose has indicated in an early ruling that he agrees.

This is able to restrict the variety of samples recorders may seek the advice of, and due to this fact may result in extra signatures being questioned.

I reached out to the Arizona Republican Occasion about this, and heard again from Gina Swoboda, the get together’s third vice chair who additionally served as an elections advisor for Republicans within the Legislature final 12 months. She reiterated the get together’s perception that state legislation doesn’t permit voter signatures from previous elections for use. Whereas counties are relying closely on a line within the Elections Procedures Handbook that enables them to make use of extra data, Swoboda stated that line conflicts with state legislation.

“If the county recorders felt that they wanted a change to carry out their duties extra successfully, the correct plan of action can be to hunt statutory modifications via the legislative department,” she stated.

The get together is hopeful {that a} closing ruling of their favor from the Yavapai County choose will encourage recorders to work with the legislature to enhance the method, Swoboda stated. 

The potential change in course of to come back from this lawsuit worries Jenny Guzman, this system director for Widespread Trigger Arizona, which advocates for voter rights. The group isn’t certain signature verification is one of the simplest ways to confirm a poll, however needs to ensure that officers have a big database to work from if that is the tactic they’re utilizing, she advised me. Officers also needs to be making an attempt to contact voters whose signature is being questioned, Guzman stated, which occurs in Arizona underneath state legislation however doesn’t occur in each state.

“Signatures must be allowed to alter,” she advised me. “It shouldn’t trigger your poll to be rejected.”

I left the demo each feeling extra assured in regards to the safety of mail voting, but additionally questioning if there may be a greater method.

As a substitute of utilizing signatures to confirm identification, some states ask voters to supply proof of identification with their mail poll, akin to a driver’s license quantity. Others require witnesses or notaries. However voting rights teams consider these strategies create unlawful limitations to voting, they usually’ve sued states to attempt to cease them.

Arizona Republican lawmakers have tried however to date did not enact new legal guidelines that may use identification numbers as a substitute of signatures to confirm mail voters’ identities, in an try to maneuver to a extra goal course of.

Guzman stated Widespread Trigger Arizona prefers signature verification over these different strategies. 

Richer advised me even he isn’t certain that the county is utilizing the perfect system. “I hate human involvement,” he stated. “I want we may computerize it. I hate there’s inherent subjectivity.”

Guzman stated her group needs to go away AI out of it, although. Signatures shouldn’t must match completely to be accepted, she stated, and computer systems can be extra inflexible than people in making these determinations, she stated.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger needed to make for a extra goal, much less subjective system, in line with spokesperson Mike Hassinger. So, in 2021, the state enacted a brand new legislation that requires voters to supply their driver’s license quantity or different private identification quantity. Whereas signatures are nonetheless required on ballots, the state makes use of the ID quantity to confirm identification, not the signature.

The tactic is “not solely a lot much less topic to subjective human interpretation, but additionally faster for election employees, extra simply understood by the voters, and simpler to catch and proper errors in the event that they happen,” Hassinger wrote in an e-mail.

However a 2021 evaluation by MIT Election Information and Science Lab discovered that states that require ID usually reject extra ballots.

And that seems to have come true in Georgia. In 2020, about 0.05% of absentee ballots had been rejected for mismatched signatures. When the county switched to verifying voters via ID numbers, in 2022, as much as 0.58% of absentee ballots had been rejected because of this — though it’s unclear precisely what number of, as a result of it’s included in an “different” class that will embody different causes for rejection.

However Hassinger stated these two charges aren’t precisely comparable as a result of the 2020 and 2022 elections and circumstances for absentee ballots had been so completely different. 

Guzman stated Widespread Trigger Arizona believes one thing is required to confirm mail-in voters’ identities, “however extra limitations is just not the reply.”