by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press
February 17, 2025

To cast an absentee ballot by mail in North Carolina, voters must follow two simple steps. First, they need two witnesses to watch them sign the ballot envelope. Second, they need to attach a copy of an acceptable form of photo identification to their ballot.  And if a recently completed pilot program is expanded to the entire state, there may soon be a third security measure: the use of a special machine to verify a voter’s signature.

North Carolina would be the only state to use all three security requirements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

During the 2024 primary, 10 counties participated in a “signature verification” pilot program. Now the results are in — and they’re not all positive. 

What the numbers show

It was an experiment that cost over $450,000, mostly to pay for verification equipment for 10 counties. County boards incurred an additional $8,000. 

The time commitment varied from county to county. In Durham County, the most populous participant, the program took 80 staff hours. In smaller areas like Bertie and Cherokee counties, the job only took an hour or two. 

And the results are mixed.

In Rowan County, for instance, the signature verification software reviewed 308 absentee ballots during the primary election. It spit out 24 as potential mismatched signatures. 

After a second, manual review, elections staff felt confident that all of the signatures actually did match except for one. 

According to Sharon Main, Rowan County’s elections director, there was a pattern among the ballots needing additional review: The average age of the voter casting them was 67.

“When you looked at them, and you looked at the handwriting and you compared it to what was on file, you could still see similarities, but it was just shakier or more sideways,” Main said. 

The verification software also got confused when comparing the absentee ballots’ ink and digital signatures on file from places like the DMV. Handwriting outside of signature boxes and other slight alterations were enough for the machine to reject some valid signatures.

After an initial machine review, 239 ballots — or 10.6% — of 2,235 were rejected. 

However, a manual review of these signatures found just six that failed both tests. 

Democracy NC, a grassroots organization that deploys personnel across the state to watch electoral processes, attests that much of what their monitors flagged also appeared in the pilot program’s final report made to the General Assembly by State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell. 

“I think it’s a lot easier to say something and to pass a law than to actually think about the reality of how it would impact voters,” said Katelin Kaiser, the policy director for Democracy NC.  

Good idea, poor execution? 

The program suffered unexpected delays, according to Brinson Bell’s report. 

The State Board missed its first reporting deadline because it couldn’t find a vendor in time. Bell asked for at least six months to find a better vendor if the legislature decides to expand the program statewide. 

After the scanners were finally delivered in June 2024, there were immediate issues. The machines had a hard time reading barcodes on absentee ballots. Some voters wrote outside small signature boxes, which complicated analysis. And reference signatures — handwriting compared to absentee-envelope signatures — had varying image qualities, depending on their age and origin. 

Jay DeLancy, the executive director of a North Carolina organization called the Voter Integrity Project, was a supporter of signature verification six years ago. After research and speaking to software developers, he sent a PowerPoint presentation to lawmakers in 2018 recommending they spend federal funds on the effort.

But after reading the results of the pilot program, he’s changed his mind. 

“I like the ideas behind it, but I think the application to elections, it’s just not going to work,” DeLancy said.

He also thinks absentee voting may fade away, which would negate the need for such a program. State Board of Elections turnout data shows that, with the exception of 2020, about 5% of North Carolina voters utilize absentee by-mail voting in most presidential elections. 

With each verification system costing between $300,000 and $450,000, the math quickly adds up. 

“​​I think there’s far better ways to spend the money,” DeLancy said.  

No problems with these signature programs

Bertie County Elections Director LaToya Peele is grateful for the “head start” on what may become a permanent, statewide process. The pilot program went well in her county with only one ballot requiring a second review, she said. 

Further south in Pamlico County, there were also no issues.

Halifax County Election Director Kristin Scott said staff encountered some of the same technical difficulties as other counties, but the process turned out fine. Still, she wouldn’t go straight to a statewide implementation right away. 

“I think a lot of testing could be done with it just to make sure that what we’re doing is accurate,” Scott said. 

Will legislature expand signature program? 

Last year, the General Assembly passed new election deadlines in Senate Bill 382. 

Now, county boards must begin counting absentee ballots on Election Night — and can’t stop until they’re done. Previously, additional meetings were allowed before the canvass — 10 days after the election. Now, all absentee and provisional ballots have to be counted by the Friday after the election instead of before the canvass. 

Main is already worried about the new deadlines even without signature verification as part of the equation. 

“You add a signature verification pilot program on top of it? That’s going to be a really long day, and it’s already about a 15 to 16-hour day,” she said. 

Maybe modifications can be made to the software, Main added, but she isn’t sure. 

“If they do go with it, I’m going to do my best to meet that requirement,” Main said. “But I do believe that they need to realize how much extra time and power that’s going to take. I want them to be fair to us on that one.” 

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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