Sound Politics: Mail Ballot Horror Show (XVII): Your vote might not count

September 28, 2006

Mail Ballot Horror Show (XVII): Your vote might not count

Jimron's latest press release: "Don't screen this phone call: King County Elections needs to reach you":

King County Elections is making one last attempt to remind voters whose signatures on their absentee ballots either doe [sic] not match their voter registration or whose ballot was not signed.

"Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence," said Jim Buck, interim director of Records, Elections and Licensing Services. "Each election hundreds of absentee voters either overlook the oath on their return envelope or their registered signature does not match the signature on their ballot envelope.

Who cares if they fail to match a correct signature, or if it's such a hassle to correct a mistake that your vote doesn't count? Or if by following directions and putting your phone number on your ballot envelope your unlisted number becomes public record? Try it. You'll like it!

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 28, 2006 10:17 AM | Email This

Comments

1. This signature omission/mismatch correction -- which can be done up until the day before certification (i.e. by close of business today) can make a difference in close races.

Right now, in my race for King County Northeast District Court (where I have a comfortable first place margin), Frank LaSalata is currently 17 votes ahead of incumbent Mary Ann Ottinger for second place:

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060928/NEWS/609280315

However, it appears that COUNTYWIDE there are still 3,470 ballots with signature issues. Since just over 28% of absentee ballots are coming from the N.E. District, roughly 1,000 signature problem ballots may have been cast in this judicial race.

Approximately 25% of the ballots have been no-mark for this race to date, while the remaining 75% are roughly evenly split between myself, LaSalata and Ottinger. So there are probably 200 to 250 people who voted for Ottinger and 200 to 250 people who voted for LaSalata who haven't had their votes counted. (About the same number for me too, of course, but I am over 2,000 votes ahead in first place.)

Unless there is some big shift one way or the other in the final vote counts, the race for second place in my race will have been decided by people whose signatures didn't match up (or weren't present at all) on their absentee ballots, and who didn't timely correct the problem.

Posted by: Richard Pope on September 28, 2006 11:02 AM

2. I know a number a folks in Jefferson County who were called in because signatures did not match. When in doubt, they called them in. This is absolutely critical if you are going to make a flawed system like Vote By Mail be even remotely acceptable.
Hats off to those validating sigs who are diligently reviewing & validating and setting those aside that are questionable.
However...voting at the polls with Photo ID would be even better obviously.

Posted by: VoteOften on September 28, 2006 11:12 AM

3. One has to question "signatures that don't match."

Are Buck's underlings duly ensuring that a ballot from Susie Smith is not signed John Jones or are these employees taking a stab and handwriting analysis? Hope it's not the latter - unless they're court certified questioned document examiners.

Posted by: Tyler Durden on September 28, 2006 01:54 PM

4. good point Tyler--anyone can be/are trained to do tax returns each year at 'H+Rblank.'

who are the signature "experts?" even a drunk can find his arse with 2 hands. and i trust them?

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 28, 2006 04:14 PM

5. They sent me a letter which stated

1. I could just sign the affadavit on the back...uh there is no affadavit on the back...dip sticks.

2. So had to go in and guess what, they looked very similar, almost identical, just a bit of a different angle etc.

Idiot said "Well they are a little different"

So if it cant be overlaid with an on file signature that matches exactly it doesnt pass, what a waste of time.

Stangely enough I looked at the previous ballot (I photo copy them all) and that signature looked worse than this one, but passed...

If election officals had 2 brain cells they would rub together and their heads would spontaneously combust.

Posted by: Todd on September 28, 2006 05:46 PM

6. Some suggestions to improve the system:

1. On-line look up system for checking the status of your absentee ballot -- has it been received, counted, etc. and what is the problem if any?

2. Allow the voter to record an e-mail address (which should be PRIVATE record) so that Election Department can e-mail them also (in addition to letters and robo-calls) and let them know that ballot has not been counted.

Posted by: Richard Pope on September 28, 2006 06:04 PM

7. Cut Jim Buck some slack. He is just following the state laws and rules governing mail ballots. They require that the county elections staff (auditor) check the signatures for a match, If they do not match, or if there is no signature, the ballot is not counted. It is the only way to ensure that the person sending the ballot is in fact the registered voter for whom intended.

However, a good faith effort must be made to obtain a missing signature or if the signature does not match, to make a good faith effort to ensure that is not simply a case of the voter's signature having changed over time.

Doing this takes a lot of additional time and effort, and supercedes the original dictum that simple said, "do not count, period."

Posted by: Bob B. on September 28, 2006 08:32 PM

8. Richard,
I was a pollworker on election day, and a woman who was also previously from Florida (3 years for me) came into my polling place to vote. Her husband works for THE company that specifically works on absentee ballot tracing ... they moved here so he could help "sell" that sytem here. I'll sleep on it and try to remember his name or company name.
It would really improve things here, or at least add a smidgeon of peace of mind.

Posted by: Lisa on September 28, 2006 10:59 PM

9. My elderly Mom lost her vision earlier this year. She now has assistance in the preparation of her ballot. Her signature has become very different than what it had been - to sign something, we need to get her fingers pointing the pen at the start of the line, but then she necessarily wanders in larger letters than the used to write. Her signature really looks very different.

How do we propose to handle the ballots of voters who are disabled?

She may be blind, but she is sharp as a tack. And she's a lifelong Republican.

Posted by: EM on September 29, 2006 08:15 AM