When I voted yesterday, (in Az), I was NOT asked for any identification.

[panader0]

I asked the recorder how they would validate my vote and was told they would match my signature.
Has anyone else had this happen? What, do they have handwriting experts or what?
It seems weird to me.

[Historic NY]

2. Did you sign in?

[yellerpup]

3. You are not supposed to be asked for identification

when you go to vote. Election inspectors have a book that confirms that you are registered and has your signature for every time you have voted previously. When you sign in to receive your ballot, your signature is compared to the signature under your name for the last time you voted. If your signature doesn't match the book (this happened only once in my experience) then you will have to show identification that matches the information on your voter registration. You don't need to be a handwriting expert to analyze a person's signature.

[Turbineguy]

5. Interestingly enough...

A number of years ago I sent in my ballot and the signatures did not match. The County Clerk's office called me to ask me about it and we got it sorted out (Snohomish County, Washington).

[yellerpup]

12. That's what happened the one time it happened

at our polling location. The guy couldn't figure out why his (4-year-old) signature didn't look like his at all when he was sure of voting and sure he voted at our polling station. He scratched his head for a bit and then remembered that he had his arm in a wrist brace during the last election. Since the signatures in the book can show your previous signatures, the comparison was easy to make.

[panader0]

6. This was my first time voting early

Usually I vote at the nearby fire station, where I always had to show ID.
It just seemed strange.

[yellerpup]

13. We don't have early voting in NY.

Maybe rules are different in each state? In any case, thanks for voting early!

[Maeve]

16. Rules do indeed vary by state

Ohio early voting requires your SS# (last 4 digits) or driver's license # (or copy of other valid ID) and signature and birthdate.

[yellerpup]

18. Thanks, Maeve.

It should have been obvious by the way different states are trying different ways to disenfranchise people.

[Ms. Toad]

22. Just to be clear -

In Ohio - if you are asked to actually show your ID during early voting, ask to speak to the Democratic director of the BOE, or the observer (who will not be there every day) or send me a PM and I will report it through my connections as an observer.

You ARE required to write either the last 4 digits of your SS# OR your driver's license # on the absentee application. If you can't do that, then they they can require a copy of other valid ID. Requiring ID when the law does not require it is a form of voter suppression.

On election day you do have to show ID (but there is a wide range of acceptable ID, including a utility bill with your name, and address, from the last year. I used that once just to test the system)

[Maeve]

28. You are right and that is the rule

I was posting quickly. Although I will say that the training I've gotten in Ohio as an election official has always encouraged us to be friendly and helpful--and most of us are!

[Ms. Toad]

29. As an observer in a Republican County

The training seems to be sticking.

With one exception, the only problems I have encountered during early voting seem clearly, to me, to be confusion not deliberate misinformation - or in appropriate directives from SOS Husted.

I've actually got a more productive relationship with the Republican director than the Democrat (both are good - the R is just around more, is higher up, and is responsive to everything I've requested).

ETA: Your info was correct - just making sure people know different rules are in effect on election day v. early voting since I see so many people come in and nearly leave when they realize they forgot their ID. Although the explanation for no early voting ID that is being provided in my county is not legally correct, it is harmless so I haven't challenged it.

[StarryNite]

21. In Arizona....

in the past, we have had to show ID with our address and it has to match the address on our voter ID. If it does not match we have to vote on a provisional ballot.

[Ms. Toad]

23. There are often different rules for early voting -

and laws change.

Or they could have been engaging in voter suppression.

[StarryNite]

30. I wouldn't call it supression....

it was the requirement by AZ law. My husband had to use a provisional ballot because he used a PO address for his driver's license and the home address for his voter registration.

[Ms. Toad]

31. Just because it is the law does not mean it is not also suppression.

Voter identification laws are intended to keep voters from being able to vote because, generally, a high voter turnout favors Democrats. In addition, the stricter identification laws disproportionately disenfranchise certain identifiable (and Democratically weighted) populations to vote: elderly, female, minority, and poor. Voters in these groups are less likely to have (or to be able to obtain) acceptable identification (when there is a strict voter ID law) because their births were at home & not registered immediately (elderly, minority, & poor), their name is different now than at birth (women), have lost documentation because of unstable living situations (poor).

As for the address not matching the registration - identification is supposed to be about who you are, not where you live. In Ohio, the address on a valid driver's license does not have to match the voter registration for that reason.

And, finally (what I was really getting at) sometimes pollworkers or certain boards of election or even the Secretary of State impose requirements that are not required by law with the intention of suppressing voting. The quick example I can give is not an ID requirement. In Ohio wearing campaign buttons into the polling place cannot be used to exclude you from voting (the pollworker's training manual is very clear - they may be asked to remove buttons, but if they refuse they cannot be denied the right to vote). The BOE I am an observer for has a policy of refusing to permit them to vote unless they remove campaign buttons. That is voter suppression - and the same thing happens with identification when individual pollworkers (or BOEs, or the SOS) require identification beyond what is required by law.

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Are you an old white guy? LOL n/t

[panader0]

7. yeah...so that's their game eh?

Wouldn't my long hair make me suspicious?

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. That it would, but then...AZ

Maybe your just an old cowboy.

[bettyellen]

15. That was the game in my town. Theyd lose my page by looking in the wrong book, LOL

About the third time, I said why don't you stop his BS? You're never going to stop me from voting.

[blaze]

8. I've never been asked for ID

Actually, I switched to mail in ballots only a couple of years ago... but since moving to Denver in 78 I can't remember a time I was asked for ID. They just look at and match my signature to the one I used when I registered.

Voter fraud has never been a real issue and so matching signatures has worked just fine.

Election fraud... that's a whole 'nother issue.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. We have had signature verification here in Philly

for some time. The signature pages are kept in a binder and you sign your page before voting. And there are checks and cross-checks as each voter is assigned a number that is recorded in a bound book and on an index card. There's usually 4 people working the 3 forms of record recording.

The only time we used to have to show proof of who you were was if it were the first time voting or first time after moving to a different poll location (or if the person ended up having to re-register after being purged).

I can't speak for other locations but here in Philly, each polling "Division" covers a relatively small area of population (a couple thousand maybe?) and for "high turnout" elections, they were lucky to see a couple hundred voters actually show up and vote, so they get to know the "regulars" as the workers usually live in the same neighborhood.

[Lex]

10. I don't have to show ID in NC.

They ask me for my address and my name, I give it. They verify I'm on their rolls. I sign a pre-printed statement saying it's me who's voting, they check my signature on that against a past signature, then they give me a ballot.

[enlightenment]

14. Have you not been voting long?

edited to add: Ah - I see you have been . . . guess it's just your location!

I'm not being critical, just curious.

This was the procedure used for years - you sign and they match it with your signature on file.

[kestrel91316]

17. Here in SoCal they check for your name in the precinct roll book and then compare your signature.

No ID necessary, though I always have mine handy in case some RW nut is running the polling place.

[sammytko]

19. here in TX you show ID if you don't have your registration card

I never have it so always show my ID. But this time I made sure to have it in my purse! Will vote early on MONDAY!

[Ms. Toad]

24. Interesting -

In Ohio, by statute, the registration card is NOT a valid ID (on election day - none is required for early voting).

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

20. That's how it used to be done

And how it should be done.

[UTUSN]

25. If the voter suppression I.D. had not been put off where I am, I was going to use my passport

and call the Rethug Secty of State (voting) and say, "I'm using my passport because I feel I'm in a foreign country."

There's no sense in my taking it out on the local poll workers or the county employees.

The passport itself, a ColonPOWELL/CondoRICE requirement for coming back from formerly "friendlies" countries, is an obnoxious reminder of ShrubCo.

[Zoeisright]

26. That is the way it's always been done.

Your signature is your ID. Is this your first time voting?

[panader0]

27. No. Voted for McGovern in '72 first time. I've voted Dem in every election since.

This is my first time that I've haven't been asked for an ID. Perhaps because I'm voting early.