Process for validating signatures varies widely in Washington

12/20/2004

Associated Press

Procedures for validating ballot signatures vary widely from county to county in Washington state, a fact that has become significant given the razor-thin margin of the governor's race.

A survey by The Seattle Times showed that counties use different procedures for evaluating signatures, the newspaper reported Sunday.

More than 3,400 absentee and provisional ballots in Washington were rejected in the November election because the signatures didn't match those on file with elections officials.

Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election by 261 votes, triggering a statewide machine recount that reduced his lead to just 42 votes over Democrat Christine Gregoire. A hand recount of all the ballots began last week, and Rossi has picked up an additional 8 votes so far, giving him a lead of 50.

Signature-related rejections made up more than half of all rejections in Skamania County, about one-third in King County and less than 1 percent in Skagit. Some counties rejected no signatures at all.

While all 39 counties in Washington follow the state's minimum requirements to verify voters' signatures, many go further, The Times reported.

Workers in some counties, including Jefferson, scrutinize absentee signatures to find six identifying traits, while others merely eyeball the handwriting. Some counties even track down voters through their relatives.

John Pearson, deputy director of elections for the Secretary of State's Office, said the result is an imbalance that could be unfair to voters.

The state Supreme Court last week rejected an argument by the Democratic Party that counties have disenfranchised voters by handling mismatched signatures so differently. The court decision means that counties will not be ordered to re-evaluate thousands of ballots that were rejected for signature problems.

If voters forget to sign the outer envelope containing a ballot, counties must contact them by mail or phone and ask them to remedy the error. For voters who did sign the envelope but whose signature did not match the one on file with their county, officials have no legal obligation to contact the voter.

But many do so anyway.

The Times found that at least 11 counties ? including Adams, Douglas, San Juan, Thurston, Jefferson, King and Pierce ? sent letters to absentee voters telling them to sign another envelope and mail it back or sign a new voter-registration form in the office.

When the King County elections office sent a letter to absentee voter Liz Ungar Mintek of Seattle stating there was a problem with her signature, she was surprised and confused.

Elections staff finally accepted her vote after she signed an envelope three different ways; she couldn't remember how she signed her voter registration card years ago.

Mintek said she would have been upset if she lived in a county like Snohomish or Whitman, which don't contact absentee voters with signature issues.

"I suppose it depends on where you live. ... That just seems so egregiously wrong," she said.

Election officials in small counties often give voters extra attention, sometimes because they know them.

In Lincoln County, which received just under 6,000 ballots in this election, auditor Shelly Johnston said she knows one couple who usually head south for the winter. So when their absentee ballot came back to the county as undeliverable, she called the couple's daughter and got a forwarding address.

"I know my voters," Johnston said. "You know what their kids are doing. ... We talk about it at church."

In Ferry County, where all 3,409 ballots were cast by mail, every signature had to be checked. If a signature didn't match the one on file, the county sent that voter a letter asking for a new signature. Those who didn't respond to the letter were given a courtesy call on the day of the election, said Auditor Clydene Bolinger.

"Our goal in Ferry County is we don't ever want to disenfranchise any voter at all," she said.

Ferry County rejected only one ballot for a mismatched signature.

Some counties treated their provisional ballots ? ones that are cast when voters' names aren't in the poll books or when they vote outside their precinct ? differently from the absentees. The state does not require counties to notify provisional voters about signature problems.

In King and Snohomish counties, officials didn't alert them. The Republican and Democratic parties, hoping to gain votes, stepped in and attempted to notify these voters, giving them a chance to correct the problems.

In other counties, including Thurston, Pierce, Pend Oreille and Jefferson, officials sent letters to provisional voters asking them to sign another envelope and mail it back or come into the elections office to rectify the problem.

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