Be aware: Ballot Signature Confusion. I will update once I've heard back from County Registrar

[hlthe2b]

I was ready to mail back my ballot in the next day or two and then I got to the signature portion of the return envelope. My legal signature is my first name, middle initial, last name, yet my ballot showed my middle name spelled out, which I have NEVER used. I started to sign it that way, then realized I would have signed with only my middle initial when I went in last year to make my registration confidential, so I signed under the full signature that way as well.

So, now, I have to worry about being disenfranchised. Since I have not yet mailed, I have emailed the County Registrar directly (so that I have a "written" confirmation) and will share what info I get on this thread. Likewise, if I get any whiff that this is a larger issue that could affect others, I will contact all three Denver networks (and I suppose the fox affiliate) as well as Denver Post. Further, I will contact the voter protection group of Colorado-ACLU.

I hope I am worried for no reason, but BE AWARE of this issue.

[curlyred]

1. What county?

I don’t even have my ballot yet in Lakewood.

[hlthe2b]

2. They are being mailed out this week, so yours should come soon. check your pm

[mercuryblues]

3. This is how the disenfranchise

Some states have the exact match law. Georgia is one of them. The people who have been kicked off the voting rolls and/or have had their registrations put on hold are told all they need is ID. They do not say that if the ID is not an exact match to their records, you vote provisional.

A "inadvertent" clerical error is all it will take to turn you away. When I moved and changed my registration to reflect that, My new voter card inverted my birthdate. Instead of reading 10/03/(I'm not gonna tell you the year). It said 03/10/(still not telling you) If I hadn't noticed and corrected it, it would not match my license and I would not have been allowed to vote. This is how they are going to deny the minority population the vote.


If you sign your registration, differently than you signed your license/ID/ you will not be allowed to vote in many states.

[Jim__]

4. That's the way my ballot came too, middle name fully spelled out. I've never signed like that.

I'll be interested to see what you hear about this from the county registrar.

[More_Cowbell]

6. My middle name is misspelled (CA)

I noticed it when I got my ballot last week, and called my county registrar yesterday. The woman I talked to said that it wouldn't matter for the election and that I could change it online. I couldn't find where I could change it at the website, and I hadn't even thought that someone might be checking the vote-by-mail envelope. I think I'll call again and ask about that specifically. Otherwise I guess I could NOT sign it and bring it to the polling place on election day, and ask the worker there what to do.

Thanks for the post.

[hlthe2b]

5. UPDATE: Believe it or not my county voter registrar just called me (no, I am NOT satisfied)

She tried so hard to deflect that "any issues would be satisfied by a panel of judges if the computer check bounces it", yet refused to commit that there was NOT a programmed "EXACT match" on the signature, though I asked her at least five times. I told her that with 100s of thousands of voters in the county and millions statewide, there would be NO way for judges to keep up with the numbers of computer-rejected ballots and those who arrived just before election day would likely NOT get counted. That if all counties (as she seemed to acknowledge) had added middle names to the signature on the return envelope, the number of people who would not know how to sign would be immense.

She tried all the tricks to deflect and told me if I had volunteered as a election judge I'd be reassured, to which I asked how the rest of the state voters were going to be reassured, especially as they see the tactics going on in other states? She of course brushed that off as having interest only in CO, to which I told her that loss of confidence nationwide was surely going to require her to do everything possible to reassure Colorado voters. I asked a total of 8 times if she would put in writing that a full signature with middle name, a signature with middle initial, or both would not get rejected by the computer programming if the signature elements were otherwise the same. She kept deflecting but when I told her I would agree to share that info with the media with whom I'd already contacted and help deflect IF I was convinced what she said was true, she begrudgingly suggested she would. I have my doubts....

VOTERS beware~!

[hlthe2b]

7. Update 2: After speaking with registrars in multiple counties, I don't have a good answer except

they all express confidence that one way or another valid signatures will make it through whether they include the middle name or not. I could not get an answer as to why the middle names were seemingly added to the return envelop ballot nor why it was not addressed in the instructions, nor whether or not the programming to screen signatures would reject based on inclusion or exclusion of the full name if that on file was different in exclusion/inclusion of these elements. The assumption was that the voter panels of reviewing judges would catch any problems.

SO MAIL IT IN EARLY!!! That's my best recommendation. I did hear from Channel 9 News Political DIrector today. He expressed belief that the system will "work" and said he felt reassured after talking to the Denver voter integrity representative; still after several email discussions, I did get a pledge from him to inquire further.

[eleny]

8. Our ballots are arriving today

I'm signed up for the Informed Delivery Daily Digest from USPS. The images of our ballots showed up in today's delivery for later today. Our names are accurate with just our middle initials. We're in Jeffco.

I was worried given your experience. Hard to take that Colorado has had Republican SOSs for 60 years. Perlmutter's local office ran out of yard signs for the Dem running for SOS. I always take that as a good thing. Polis also ran out of his yard signs. We've been needing to drive all over our area this week and noticed more Dem signs everywhere. More than ever since we moved here in 1976. People are motivated. Some Perlmutter signs are huge nailed to fences on the larger avenues. And like us some homeowners have flocks of yard signs in their front yards.

[hlthe2b]

9. Update 3: just contacted by ACLU-CO

They responded to my email stating that:

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The bulk of our inquiries and concerns with voting pertain to this signature verification process. We are tracking these issues and will challenge any disenfranchisement.

Please keep us posted and let me know if you’d like to discuss with a call."

That might be the one response thus far that reassures me....