Lawsuit seeks to stop disqualification of Washington ballots for signature mismatches

SEATTLE — Throughout each election in Washington, tens of 1000’s of ballots are rejected as a result of poll envelope signatures are flagged as not matching how they’ve seemed up to now.

Within the Nov. 8 midterm alone, practically 27,000 ballots have been challenged based mostly on signature comparisons by election employees, in line with the secretary of state’s workplace.

A brand new lawsuit seeks to ban such signature rejections as unconstitutional, pointing to knowledge suggesting they’re subjective, error-plagued and disproportionately disenfranchise younger individuals, individuals with disabilities and other people of colour.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in King County Superior Courtroom by three nonprofit teams that work to spice up voter turnout: Vet Voice Basis, Washington Bus and El Centro de la Raza. Three King County voters whose ballots have been rejected due to signature challenges are also plaintiffs.

The 39-page criticism names as defendants Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, King County Elections Director Julie Sensible and two members of the King County canvassing board.

Washington state legislation requires county elections workplaces to scrutinize signatures on ballots and confirm that they match the signature on file for the voter.

It’s a requirement geared toward stopping vote fraud — such signature checks are often cited by elections officers as a purpose to belief the state’s mail-ballot system is safe — however the brand new lawsuit argues the checks do much more hurt than good.

The criticism notes documented circumstances of voter fraud are “extraordinarily uncommon” in Washington and that “few, if any” such circumstances have been caught and prosecuted based mostly on signature matching.

“Due to this fact, Washington’s Signature Matching Process has disenfranchised tens of 1000’s of lawful voters for no discernible profit,” states the criticism filed by Kevin Hamilton, a Seattle legal professional and election legislation professional who has represented the Democratic Celebration in election disputes throughout the nation, together with three different attorneys on the legislation agency Perkins Coie.

Whereas voters can “treatment” poll signature challenges by filling out a kind, many don’t and their votes go uncounted.

Between the 2018 main election and the 2022 normal election, Washington’s signature checks invalidated greater than 113,000 ballots, the lawsuit states.

“These voters did all the pieces required of them underneath Washington legislation: They crammed out their ballots, sealed the envelopes, signed them, and returned them on time. Nonetheless, their votes weren’t counted,” the criticism says.

Within the 2020 normal election, voters aged 18-21 had their ballots rejected at a price 10 occasions greater than voters over 40, the lawsuit says, citing state knowledge. In the identical election, Latino, Black and Asian voters discovered their ballots rejected at about double the speed of white voters’ ballots. Energetic-duty navy ballots have been rejected at practically double the speed of nonmilitary voters’ ballots.

The lawsuit additionally cites a state auditor report highlighting issues with arbitrariness of the signature-matching course of in a evaluate of the 2020 election.

That report, launched in February, famous that 10 counties it examined obeyed state legislation and rejected comparatively few ballots — lower than 1% of the 4.2 million votes solid in that election. Nonetheless, auditors identified that rejection charges various drastically by county.

Kaeleene Escalante Martinez, one of many particular person plaintiffs within the lawsuit, described as a younger Latina voter, was notified her poll was rejected in three successive elections as a result of elections officers flagged her signature as not matching the one on file.

When her poll was rejected within the 2020 normal election, Escalante Martinez accomplished paperwork to repair the signature downside, however her vote was not counted, in line with the lawsuit.

“In brief, she did all the pieces that was required of her to solid her poll and train her basic proper to vote,” the lawsuit says.

Her ballots have been rejected within the main and normal election this 12 months, too, the lawsuit states: “Ms. Escalante Martinez lately discovered that, remarkably, for a 3rd time in as many elections, election officers mistakenly rejected her signature on her poll.”

A second particular person plaintiff, Bethan Cantrell, has a “persistent situation that makes writing and signing her identify extraordinarily uncomfortable.” The third particular person plaintiff, Daisha Britt, is described as “a Black, Native American and White resident of King County” who has a self-described “sophisticated signature” that has been repeatedly rejected.

Such signature rejections are determined by elections employees who obtain some coaching, however aren’t handwriting specialists, and should rush to confirm tens of millions of ballots in only a few weeks, the lawsuit says.

Halei Watkins, a spokesperson for King County Elections, stated in an electronic mail that state legislation requires signature matching “to make sure a voter is the one who voted their poll and is what all WA counties use when verifying ballots. The questions raised on this submitting will probably be as much as the courts to weigh in on and determine.”

Derrick Nunnally, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s workplace, stated in an electronic mail, “So far as I’m conscious, this workplace hasn’t been served and might supply no remark.”

The lawsuit asks for a authorized ruling declaring the state’s signature-matching procedures violate the state structure. It asks that elections officers be completely barred from utilizing poll envelope signatures apart from to substantiate the return envelope has been signed.

Different strategies of discovering probably unlawful ballots will stay obtainable to elections workplaces, the lawsuit notes. That features the common checks of knowledge from Social Safety data, the Division of Corrections and Division of Well being to search for useless or ineligible voters.

In King County, about 12,000 ballots with challenged signatures have been nonetheless excellent as of this week for the latest midterm election, in line with Watkins.

The elections workplace notifies voters if their ballots have been challenged, and voters have till 4:30 p.m. Monday to fill out the shape wanted to treatment the problem and guarantee their ballots are counted.