Voters who registered at MVC agencies are at risk of having their ballots rejected

[TexasTowelie]

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 year’s 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 individual’s 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 don’t know that we’ve accepted any ballot from a person that’s registered at MVC because it doesn’t 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 it’s really easy if it’s a registration online or MVC because it doesn’t 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]

1. Oh GEE, just didn't THINK of that!

[58Sunliner]

2. They should have thought of that ahead of time.

They should not be able to disqualify those ballots.

[SharonClark]

3. NJ government fucked this up by not thinking through the

“pin pad” signatures.

[kurtcagle]

4. I wonder if

the county election officials involved are uniformly Republican?

[Grins]

5. More proof matching signatures is a failure!

My signature like everyone’s 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. It’s almost 2021 and we are still doing this?

[Chainfire]

6. They are going about vote challenges ass-backwards

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]

9. I totally agree, Chainfire.

Every elections office SHOULD err on the side of the ballot being good.

[femmedem]

7. This is inexcusable. And that's the politest language that comes close to how I feel about this.

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 year’s election alone, 84% of the Republicans running in all races in Atlantic County were elected.

[AlexSFCA]

8. what excuse does NJ have?

Isn’t it controlled by dems? Stuff like that is something I only expect from gop.

[3Hotdogs]

10. Is it possible these were Republicans registering for a second or third vote?

How many of the "Cure" letters came from Rep. counties?