Procedures election officials use to review signatures on mail-in ballots are being tested in courts around the nation.
ABC News reported those cases could determine whether something as simple as bad penmanship could disqualify ballots.
In one Texas case, George Richardson’s absentee ballot was tossed out in 2018 because an election official didn’t believe his signature matched the one on file.
"The record in our case showed that in these election cycles, thousands of votes can be rejected because of perceived disconnects between signatures," said Richard Mancino, who was representing Richardson.
"This can affect thousands of voters. And in the current circumstances, with the volume of mail-in ballots set to increase substantially, the risk of voters being disenfranchised is substantial.”
Election officials are set for 2020 to produce a record number of mail-in ballots as a result of the pandemic, according to ABC News. And it pointed out signature matching is one of the most common procedures used to verify registered voters.
Vanita Gupta, president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said when verification is "done according to best practice" it can be a valuable tool to protect elections.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats are in court claiming that signature matching alone "is an inherently flawed means of determining whether a mail-in ballot is fraudulent or improperly cast.”
And in Richardson’s Texas case, the court ruled in his favor, saying the perceived mismatch in signatures was not enough to toss out his ballot. But the case is under appeal.
Federal judges are rushing to establish clear rules to help avert partisan clashes over questionable signatures in November, ABC News said.
This comes as President Donald Trump has said mail-in voting is “rife with fraud.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.