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UPDATE (10/24/2018): On Wednesday, Oct. 24, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking election officials in Georgia from throwing out absentee ballots or applications for a supposed signature mismatch without giving voters an opportunity to contest the determination and confirm their identity.

Early voting in Georgia for the 2018 general election just kicked off on Monday, but already the state has rejected close to 600 absentee ballots or applications for an absentee ballot.

One culprit?

State laws that require election officials to reject all absentee ballots and absentee ballot applications if they believe that signatures within the voter鈥檚 paperwork do not match each other.

The elections鈥� officials making these determinations do not have any formal education or training to analyze people鈥檚 handwriting, and are not given any unifying instructions on what should constitute a mismatch. It鈥檚 left entirely up to them, a layperson. Georgia does not notify voters before their ballots are rejected nor does it provide them an opportunity to contest the determination.

To throw out someone鈥檚 ballot 鈥� without any prior notice or chance to appeal 鈥� is a clear due process violation. That鈥檚 why we, with the ACLU of Georgia, are suing Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and all county registrars on behalf of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, an organization that will have to divert voter turnout resources into educating the public about the risk of being disenfranchised over handwriting.

With midterms only 19 days away, there is no time to waste. We鈥檙e asking the court to order Georgia to give impacted voters the opportunity to confirm their identity or otherwise resolve the alleged discrepancy before their ballots are rejected. The court has set a hearing date of Tuesday, Oct. 23.

It鈥檚 a simple solution and one that the state should be familiar with, given that Georgia already implements these types of due process protections for voters in similar situations. In fact, for absentee voters whose ballots are being challenged because they are allegedly unqualified to vote, the state not only provides notice of the challenge but a hearing on a rushed time frame and an opportunity to appeal the finding before a judge.

Learn more about the case

To not extend the same due process protection to voters who are being put at risk over their penmanship is senseless, especially given the enormity of reasons that a person鈥檚 signature can vary. Factors include age, physical and mental condition, disability, medication, stress, accidents, and inherent differences in a person's neuromuscular coordination and stance. Signature variants are more prevalent in people who are elderly, disabled, or who speak English as a second language.

A disproportionate amount of Georgia鈥檚 rejected ballots are coming from Gwinnett County, the state鈥檚 second largest, which is reportedly nearly one in 10 vote-by-mail ballots. Gwinnett is also one of the state鈥檚 most counties, with African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians making up more than half the population. It鈥檚 also the only county in Georgia that is to provide election materials in both English and Spanish.

Kemp 鈥� who is running for governor while serving as the chief election official for the state 鈥� is also the defendant in a different voting rights which challenges Georgia鈥檚 exact-match system. It suspends voters if the information they enter on their registration form doesn鈥檛 exactly match their state driver鈥檚 license and Social Security records. As a result, more than 53,000 voter registration applications have been placed in 鈥減ending鈥� status. Impacted voters to vote if they bring a qualifying identification to the polls, but it鈥檚 a position that they should not have been put in the first place.

With midterms just around the corner, and lawsuits filed on multiple fronts, Georgia should get the message: Signatures may vary, but due process and the constitutionally protected right to vote does not.

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