Elections officials in Pierce County are contacting all voters ages 18 to 26 and asking them to update their signatures in an effort to head off challenges and make sure their votes are counted.
Washington uses signature verification to make sure voters are who they say they are. But that sometimes poses a problem for young people, who are less likely to regularly sign their names, and often evolve their signatures as they age into adulthood.
Voter registration in Washington happens automatically when people get their driver’s license, so for many voters, the signature they provided when they got their license at 16 is the one used for comparison when they vote. But by the time they turn 18, their signature often looks totally different, said Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer.
“Because kids these days don’t need to sign anything,” Farmer said.
In last year’s presidential election, 2,029 Pierce County ballots were flagged as “challenged” by election workers because the signature did not match the one on file. Voters aged 18 to 26 were disproportionately represented — 51% of the challenged ballots came from that age group.
Elections officials try to contact voters whose ballots were challenged to help them “cure” the signature issue, Farmer said, but not every voter follows up and fixes it.
To help address the problem this year, the Pierce County Auditor’s Office is launching an outreach campaign. All Pierce County voters aged 18 to 26 will get a postcard with instructions on how to update their signatures. It takes only a couple minutes online, Farmer said.
Some voting rights advocates have argued that signature verification requirements disenfranchise voters. A 2023 report from the University of Washington’s Evans Policy Innovation Collaborative project found that in Washington young people and people of color are more likely to have ballots rejected because of signature issues.
This spring, Washington’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s signature verification system as constitutional, after several advocacy groups had filed a lawsuit arguing that it had unconstitutionally disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters.
Farmer said technology has in some ways made signatures “a little outdated,” and that elections officials throughout the country have been looking into alternative ways to verify people’s identities.
“Logistically, we’re still figuring that out and going through a few pilots, so it’ll take a while for the industry to change,” Farmer said. “But for now, signatures are a tried and tested way to tell that it’s you.”
The Auditor’s Office is planning to mail postcards to young voters later this month. They’re mailing two different versions — one in standard English, and another written in “Gen-Z slang,” Farmer said.
“We’re running an experiment to see if people who get one postcard respond more at higher numbers than the other one,” Farmer said.
One postcard starts with “Dear voter.” The Gen-Z one is addressed “Hey Bestie.”
“Update your signature,” the standard version says. “You can even submit multiple versions to make sure your vote always counts!”
“Fix it before it flops,” the Gen-Z version says. “Your signature isn’t ugly — it’s inconsistent. Fix it now and thank us later. It only takes like, 2 minutes.”
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Editor's note: Linda Farmer is a former member of the KNKX Community Advisory Council.
