Washington state’s signature-verification procedures are meant to root out exceedingly rare cases of voter fraud. But what they’ve typically done is get a lot of innocent legal votes tossed out. In 2020 alone, the state rejected more than 24,000 ballots.
And legal votes from voters with Latino- or Hispanic-sounding names, like Reyes or Mendoza, tend to get unfairly disqualified more frequently.
In the eight counties with the highest number of Latino voters, InvestigateWest’s data analysis concluded back in 2021 that voters with Hispanic-sounding names were four times more likely to have their votes discarded than other voters. And while there’s a procedure for “curing” your ballot — going online or showing up in person to fix your signature — your vote can still get rejected if your signature fails the second time. The percent of challenged ballots that get fixed are also lower for Latino voters.
Following that report, UCLA’s Voting Rights Project sued three central Washington counties — Benton, Yakima and Chelan — where the disparities were particularly large, alleging racial discrimination. After years of litigation, the counties have finally settled, under an agreement that requires them to hold semiannual signature-verification training for county election staff and volunteers, as well as cultural competency training.
The ballot materials will also now include Spanish language instructions on the ballot’s security sleeve outlining exactly how your signature will be verified and how to fix your ballot if your signature is rejected.
“Everyone has the goal, including the auditors, to ensure that elections are run fairly and that everyone is able to cast a ballot,” said Sonni Waknin, voting rights counsel at the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “Just investigating and spending more time understanding why these ballots are rejected is really important.”
The case was not without its hiccups. The original federal judge presiding over the case — Salvador Mendoza — had to recuse himself in 2021 because one of his ballot signatures had initially been rejected.
Handwriting comparisons are always prone to error. Signatures can change for a variety of reasons. Maybe a person got older, broke an arm or had a stroke. Maybe they got married and started to sign a new last name. One expert told The Atlantic in 2018 that handwriting science was tantamount to “witchcraft.”
