Finding Creative Solutions to the Issues Americans Face

This article examines how states verify voters' signatures on mailed ballots, otherwise known as absentee ballots in some states. While most states still provide for in-person voting, a handful of states have moved to conducting their elections entirely by mailed ballots, which can be returned to the election administrators by the voters through the mail, or by dropping off the ballots at certain locations or ballot drop boxes maintained by the election officials. Some states use signature verification software - called Automated Signature Verification (ASV) software to speed up the process of verifying large numbers of signatures on ballot envelopes, while other states use an entirely manual process to verify the voters' signatures. Some states do not conduct any form of signature verification, relying on other information to qualify the ballots.

Absentee voting - the casting of a ballot at some location away from the polling place, began as a service to soldiers during wartime that was later expanded to include citizen voters who could not vote in person for various reasons, such as sickness, emergencies or travel on election day. Today, absentee voting has expanded to include no-excuse absentee voting in most states, and all mail ballot voting in others. As states handle larger and larger volumes of mailed ballots, many have begun to allow voters to return those ballots through drive-up "ballot drop boxes". Recently, the federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) has issued guidance for security of those drop boxes, and for ensuring that they are closed and locked at the same time as other polling places.

Can Americans trust our elections? The Pew Foundation recently found that 4 in 10 Americans are skeptical of the accuracy and trustworthiness of our elections.