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Those are much of the same arguments that democrats have had against signature verification as being a reason to toss them out. So, I suppose you do agree with them on that point, it's just the what to do about it instead is the question.That doesn't solve all the problems with stealing ballots from mailboxes. It is possible to suppress voting via targeted theft by stealing the ballots from people who have lawn-signs for the candidate you don't like, or who you suspect will vote for that candidate, while leaving those who you think will vote for your candidate alone.
That may have been the Dem's and the Court's intention, but I do not see how it's feasible to give voters who submitted ballots with questionable signatires via mail a chance to "correct" them in the time-frame available. So it seems to me that the actual effect of this ruling is that ballots are counted whether the signature matches or not.
If you really want secure not-in-person voting, signatures are a horribly unreliable method of doing this. I registered to vote at my current address in when I moved there 1988. I voted often enough to maintain my registered status for the next 20-some years, but due to me doing everything on a computer, my handwriting atrophied and my signature changed significantly. Yet every time I voted, by signature from 1988 was still in the book I had to sign. The folks who signed me in raised their eyebrows at the discrepancy more than once. Telling them that the reference signature was a couple of decades old and offering to show my ID was enough to placate them. This year, I re-registered (on-line) and the signature in the book now appears to be the one from my most recent driver's license renewal.
So instead of signatures, why don't we require re-registration on the same schedule that a person renews their driver's license? In PA that's every four years, and along with your driver's license, you're issued a set of 8 randomly generated six-digit codes printed on the back of your voter registration card, so one for each election in the next four years. When you vote by some means other than in-person, you must verify your identity using the code you were assigned for that election. That's just one idea.....
-Uwe-
The two states I've lived in, voter registration was done while getting a driver's license. Now, what I'm not 100% sure of is if that means when the license expires, so does my voter registration? I'll have to check with local rules on that. There likely are some communication between agencies that could be shored up to ensure accurate voter registration rolls to more quickly and accurately update for when someone moves out of state or passes away to better ensure people aren't just going to steal a ballot by mail and do whatever they want with it.
This all being said, I still don't think it's possible the few cases of fraud that are caught every election are ever enough to overturn the results. Also, my state has the ability to let me know when my ballot is sent, so I know when abouts to expect it in the mail (early October typically) and if I don't receive it, then I can contact them about it. I'm unsure on if there is an individual code each ballot has, that would also be a good thing to do in case they do reprint a ballot in the case of one being stolen, that way they can differentiate which is the stolen one so that can be thrown out. The other nice thing is they also have a notification system to let me know that it has infact been counted. Though I will admit, I haven't yet trusted the USPS to deliver my ballot. I drop it off either at the polling location the day of or there are other drop boxes inside city or county buildings (can only be dropped off during normal open hours) which I can deliver it early. That's my preferred way of going about it. It at least cuts down on my having to wait in a long line, which is the primary nice thing about the process to me.
So, even if I am dropping off a ballot on election day, I can cut the normal line and drop the ballot off in the designated mail-in ballot drop location at the polling spot and walk right back out, no wait, no hassle. Personally, if we aren't going to make election day a national holiday, this is my preferred method of going about it. Avoiding standing in line is a big plus. Hell, even if we DID make it a national holiday, I think I'd still prefer this method.