Signature verification creates barriers for many voters with disabilities — and others, but is also the most common way to authenticate mail-in ballots

Signatures create barriers for voters with disabilities

Many people with a variety of disabilities cannot produce a consistent signature that can be used to verify their identity, including blind and low-vision voters, voters whose signatures have changed due to age-related dexterity disabilities, and voters who rely on digital assistive technology for communication.

Best practices to reduce mistakenly rejected signatures

• Retain signatures from multiple touch-points with government services to have more than one to sample compare to the signature on the envelope.
• Use automated signature comparison software for the first review, followed by a manual bipartisan review of flagged mismatches.
• Accept signatures outside of the designated signature location.
• Give voters with disabilities ways to formally register and use a signature stamp or other consistent indicator as a stand-in for their signature.

Supporting voters with print disabilities

Going beyond signature verification as the only authentication method and offering a range of identitification options will help voters with disabilities find a solution that fits with their circumstances.

This research was conducted by Lynn Baumeister, Whitney Quesenbery (Center for Civic Design), and Sharon Laskowski (National Institute of Standards and Technology).

This report is a literature review and analysis of existing research and practice. It draws on election administration data, legal cases, and a review of identity verification methods used across government, financial, and commercial contexts. It was published as a pre-publication draft in the NIST Voting Technology Series in November 2023.