We talked a little bit about
absentee voting this week,
with several of you already requesting one,
or having already sent one in.
One would think there'd be an uptick
in how many absentee ballots are
requested in Idaho with the pandemic,
the COVID pandemic,
and how it impacted in person voting and all.
But we did find out this week the state is
seeing about the same number of requests,
the rate, that is the rate of requests
as we've seen in previous election years.
But we've also seen several
questions concerning absentee ballots
like these from Phil in Boise.
I wondered for a while if I
were to have a ballot.
Rejected because of signature mismatch?
What I hear back or does it just
get rejected and I'm not told?
Also, is there a way to know what
my official signature looks like?
The one on my license was on a digital
pad and I think it is basically, well,
illegible and not much like my real one.
Thanks, says Phil.
Well, yeah,
it would be nice to know if your vote was
discounted because of the discrepancy.
Joe Parris checked in with the Secretary
of State's office to get the answers.
Thousands
of Idahoans are expected to vote
through the mail via absentee voting
for the November 2022 election.
That process comes with practical questions
about voter security and authentication.
But as Phil asked the 208 if an absentee
ballot is rejected for a bad signature,
is the voter ever told?
We checked in with Idaho election expert
Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck.
So under Idaho law,
what you're typically talking about there,
or what's described in the public,
is curing that ballot.
That's the term.
Staff and associated with what
we're talking about here and there
is no requirement in Idaho law for
county clerks to cure a ballot.
However, Hawk says county clerks want
to get the votes correct and counted.
They do everything they can in most cases to
reach out to that individual and let them
know they may have contact information,
that it may be that the only contact
information they have is mail.
So they would be mailing them a letter saying
there's been an issue with your signature.
The fastest way to find out about
that is to jump on to vote Idaho.
Check the status of your existing ballot.
You'll see that it went from outstanding
to rejected or outstanding to on hold,
and that lets you know that you
need to get in touch with the clerk.
County clerks may have a phone
number on file for you as well,
so they may call you about the
issue the election season, though,
some Idahoans might be voting
absentee for the first time,
prompting the question about what
their signature is supposed to look
like on the ballot in terms of what
the county has on record and how
voters can make sure it matches up.
Hawk says the signature depends
on how you register to vote.
If you registered online with our
online voter registration tools,
then your signature was actually pulled
from your DMV file as long as there was
a usable signature there with the DMV.
So it would be the same as
what's on your driver's license.
If you filled out a voter registration card,
then that signature is going to be
what was on that actual registration
card scanned in as a digital image.
Speaking of authentication,
a popular question about the
process involves who is doing.
The work computer, a person?
Something in between.
Well, how says in Idaho,
it's human beings.
We do put all of our county staff
folks through a handwriting signature
verification training program.
They're taught to look for specific markers,
specific indicators that give them a high
level of confidence that the signature,
while it may mature or degrade overtime,
was actually executed by the same
individual as the record signature.
Some counties, like Ada County, do.
Whose digital scanning?
Just to make sure there's actually
a signature on the ballot before
authentication, Howe says.
This is a great reminder.
You need to have a signature on your
absentee ballot for it to count.
I think the biggest thing to remember
when we're talking about absentee isn't
about the number of signatures rejected.
It isn't about the exact matching or
the accuracy of the of the signature.
More often than not reasons for rejection.
The biggest reason for rejection is simply
forgetting to sign the envelope altogether,
another major. Reminder,
make sure your ballot ends up
in your envelope back to the
clerk's office you're seeing.
The absentee ballot for the husband coming
back in the wife's envelope or vice versa.
And those have to line up the the
signature on the envelope has to match
the registered voters name on the
envelope because that's the that's
the account they're looking for.
If that doesn't line up,
they're not going to look for well,
what's the spouse?
So this looks like a spouses signature.
Did the spouse have an absentee
ballot as well?
So what if you have a not so
great signature on your license,
like a :) or a scribble?
It does happen.
Well, the hope is that it's not the case,
but you could get a call from the
clerk's office if they have any
doubt or questions about your signature.
If that is you though,
and you think your signature is a problem,
you can always reregister to vote on paper,
the registration card.
You can update your signature that way,
as we talked about.
But you can also find out if your absentee
ballot has had an issue before Election Day,
if they let you know,
or if for some reason you
think it didn't make it,
you can check in with your county clerk's
office and let's say, for example.
They do give you a caller.
They do let you know there's
an issue with your signature.
You can still go in on Election Day,
you can go in, you can talk to the clerk,
and they will spoil your absentee ballot,
meaning it never counted,
it was never processed.
And because they'll disqualify that ballot,
they would still allow you
to vote at the polls.
So if for some reason your
signature is rejected or there's a
problem with your absentee ballot,
maybe in the rare case that
it doesn't make it,
you're not disqualified from voting.
The only thing you would be disqualified
from is if your absentee ballot went through,
it was processed correctly,
and then you showed up appearing
to vote twice.
That would be an issue,
but it's very rare.
You
know what this tells me?
It tells me that there's a pretty good
verification process in place already
when it comes to elections in Idaho,
that they're not just gonna
accept anything that comes even
if it's in the wrong envelope.
You just messed it up with your wives.
I mean, there's a lot there that
they check and double check
to make sure it is legit.
Yeah, they keep such a close eye on
it and and from time to time they
do catch instances of voter fraud.
There was actually a sentencing out
of Ada County as recently today.
So it does happen.
It's not one of these things where
it's never happened, ever.
It does happen, but it's a very
small amount of occurrences.
Alright. Thank you very much, Joe.