By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Election laws are in a constant state of change. In a ruling earlier this month on several 2021 election law changes, the Kansas Supreme Court said the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a fundamental right to vote. One legal issue at heart is the verification of signatures on ballots. Barton County Clerk Bev Schmeidler said the process has worked well.
"The signatures, that's another piece of security," she said. "That's something we can see, we can verify against what that voter signed when they registered to vote. When they sign that ballot envelope, we can verify that for them. It's just another layer of security in the election process."
Several employees in the Barton County Clerk's office have attended handwriting analysis classes, which help staff identify changes from aging or look for the nuances that make handwriting unique to an individual.
"Registrant records may be very old," Schmeidler said. "If you don't move, if you live in the same house for 30-40 years and you don't have a reason to re-register, your signature was from decades ago. It could have changed over time, so we have had people come in and do a new signature card."
The state has a large database of signatures from voter registration applications. When someone requests a mail ballot, the signature on the application is compared to the original registration signature before a ballot is even mailed. When the envelope is returned, the signature is again verified. For questionable signatures, the clerk's office may ask that person to complete a new verification card.
"We have had some we cannot verify," Schmeidler said. "The signatures are very different and the people don't want to come in for whatever reason. Sometimes they have been rejected."
The number of signatures needing verification can vary widely in a given election. In Barton County, at least several hundred will likely need to be verified in each election. Those numbers ballooned for the 2020 election that included the presidential race and concerns about COVID-19.
"We have well over 200 voters that are permanently advanced, where those people are maybe housebound, have a disability, or a reason they can't go to the polls. They can register as a permanently-advanced voter so they automatically get sent a ballot whenever they're eligible to vote in that election. I would suspect for this primary, since it's a presidential year, we could have upwards of 500 to verify. In 2020, for instance, we mailed more than 3,000 ballots. That was a lot to verify."
Schmeidler's office also has to verify other signatures. The state of Kansas recently added two political parties. That process required a petition, and the secretary of state's office requires county offices to verify the signatures of the registered voters from that county that signed the petition. Candidates may also use petitions to file for office, and the clerk's office must verify those signatures.