Odd election day story.

[JohnnyRingo]

I work the polls here in a small town in Ohio. There was nothing really on he ballot, and if not for an emotional contest between two township reps, turnout was expected to be light. The day's total was 350 voters in my precinct.

My job this year was to check a voter's ID, which in Ohio can include a driver's license or even an electric bill with a matching address. This address is checked against the one in my book, a book that includes current registration info and whether that person already voted absentee. There's a facsimile of the voter's most recent signature there as well, and the voter signs anew and prints their address in the blank.

The person next to me takes that ID while the voter signs in and prints their name and address in what we call a reconciliation book. That the two books match ensures that voters only cast one vote. The woman who handled that task this time was a delightful retired local school teacher who seemed to know almost everyone in the township, either sociably or through one or more of their children.

A woman came in after work at a clinic that afternoon. I learned this because she was still wearing her scrubs and the school teacher who knew her struck up a conversation while she was signing my book. As they continued to chat the small stuff, I handed off her ID so "Barb" could complete the process and issue her a card to access the machine.

About an hour after she left, her husband arrived to cast his vote, and when he signed my book, he pointed out that his wife hadn't voted yet. "Barb" informed him that she did indeed vote and she showed him the entry written into her reconciliation book to prove it, but the space in my book was mysteriously blank.

At first, I thought I screwed up and didn't have her sign in while she was distracted by Barb, but I was pretty sure I watched her do it. Then her husband noticed that their daughter voted, even though she was in Columbus and was unable to vote here this time. I looked at the entry for the daughter, and it was signed in a nearly perfect match. Both names started with a letter J, but the daughter's name was much longer. it was obvious that while she was shooting the breeze with Barb, she signed in as her daughter.

Her husband called to have her return and sign the book proper. He mentioned how that upset her because she'd already donned her pajamas for the night and didn't want to head out again. She did show up again soon after while he waited and signed her own name in the proper place.

Now I know she wasn't trying to cheat or anything, after all, we would have instantly recognized her trying to vote again, but I can't figure out for the life of me how any parent could absentmindedly sign their kid's name without thinking. I have two adult boys, and I can't imagine doing such a thing. We noticed later there were only a couple small discrepancies between the two signatures, like how they formed their letter E. One name was four letters, and the other had seven or eight. The addresses were the same.

Once again. I know there was no attempt to cheat, but I've never heard of such a thing. Any theories?