New Jersey
Related: About this forumVoters who registered at MVC agencies are at risk of having their ballots rejected
The law that made voter registration easier by allowing drivers to register to vote at a motor vehicle office is making it harder for many New Jerseyans to have their ballots counted in this years mostly vote-by-mail election.
Several county election officials said registrations that include the signature created by using a Motor Vehicle Commission pin pad generally are not comparable to the inked signature on an individuals ballot, leading officials to set aside those ballots. They then send out a cure letter that the voter must complete and sign, affirming that he did submit the ballot so it can be counted. But only about half of those letters are being returned, elections officials told NJ Spotlight News.
I dont know that weve accepted any ballot from a person thats registered at MVC because it doesnt come near to what their signature looks like, so we send them a cure letter, said Evelynn Caterson, chair of the Atlantic County Board of Elections. We make every effort to see if it is indeed the voter and its really easy if its a registration online or MVC because it doesnt look like it.
The problem is especially acute in this high-profile general election because voter turnout is highest in presidential election years and interest this year seems even greater. Adding to the problem is that every active New Jersey registered voter was sent a mail-in ballot and is being encouraged to vote this way to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Read more: https://www.njspotlight.com/2020/10/nj-election-2020-signature-problem-motor-vehicle-commission-voter-registration-ballots-set-aside/
elleng
(130,974 posts)58Sunliner
(4,386 posts)They should not be able to disqualify those ballots.
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)pin pad signatures.
kurtcagle
(1,604 posts)the county election officials involved are uniformly Republican?
Grins
(7,218 posts)My signature like everyones varies with age, time, mood, etc. Comparing a signature written on a ballot to one scratched out on a touch screen at the DMV is worthless.
Time to get rid of it. And revamp the entire election process. Its almost 2021 and we are still doing this?
Chainfire
(17,549 posts)If the election officials can not verify a signature, the vote should be counted and revoked later if found to be wrong. There should be a presumption that the vote is valid until proven otherwise. If many of the people receiving the "fix letters" were like me, they have been throwing post-vote mail in the trash without giving it a second glance and that is no reason to disenfranchise them.
It seems as if this year, everyone is looking for reasons to not get the votes counted. I have no idea why......
BComplex
(8,053 posts)Every elections office SHOULD err on the side of the ballot being good.
femmedem
(8,203 posts)If officials know that the person's MVC signature won't match their handwritten signature, there should be no need for a cure.
(I think even in normal circumstances, signature matching should not be a requirement, but this is ridiculous, even though I don't believe this is deliberate disenfranchisement, just rigid rule-following.)
Edit: On second thought, although I had assumed it wasn't deliberate disenfranchisement because New Jersey is blue, now I'm not so sure, based on this: Despite having thousands of more Democratic than Republican voters in Atlantic County, we have a Republican County Executive, Republican Surrogate, a majority on the Freeholder Board and Republican majorities in two-thirds of our townships, cities and boroughs. In last years election alone, 84% of the Republicans running in all races in Atlantic County were elected.
AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)Isnt it controlled by dems? Stuff like that is something I only expect from gop.
3Hotdogs
(12,391 posts)How many of the "Cure" letters came from Rep. counties?