Gem State Wire

Recently voted into law, ID HB290 will impose stronger requirements for verifying signatures on mail-in absentee ballots. 

The text of the bill states that Idaho ballot signatures can only be certified if they are an exact match of the signature on the specific citizen’s voter registration card. Because of this, the bill states ballot fraud will be deterred and certification of a voter’s identity will be mandatory. 

In addition to requiring signature verification, Idaho HB290 will require the Secretary of State to instruct election clerks in the proper process of certifying signatures, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports.

Federal bill HR 1, if passed, will effectively eliminate proper signature verification across all 50 states, including Idaho. Current federal election law requires that two judges, typically representing opposite sides of the aisle, can inspect ballots together. If signatures do not match, one of the two judges can raise an objection and call the ballot’s validity into question. 

According to a commentary published by Real Clear Politics and written by Ken Cuccinelli, section 1621 of the HR 1 bill indicates that a minimum of two judges are required to reject a ballot signature. Under HR 1, to reject a ballot, both judges would have to agree that its signature does not match the voter registration. Because rejection requires agreement, this would “allow either party to decide to approve any mail-in ballots based on the signatures provided,” enabling partisan actors to allow votes whose signatures look nothing like voter registration cards, Cuccinelli argues. This would enable “partisan interference and fraud,” he wrote.