By: Diane Benjamin
Last week I wrote about the review of signatures of some voters in Normal: https://blnnews.com/2017/05/06/normals-vote-recount/
The McLean County Clerk has the signatures on file for the purpose matching the voter with that signature on election day. Since voter ID isn’t required, it’s quite easy for anyone to pick the name of a registered voter and vote for them. The poll workers must match the signatures before allowing anyone to vote.
I do know many inconsistencies were found by the Tiritilli team. It is up to Marc whether he wants to have a judge decide the issue.
The argument of signatures changing as a person ages will not hold any weight in court. The County frequently updates the voter rolls and sends out new voter registration cards. The voters signature is on each voter registration card. Unless elections are just a joke, it’s up to voters to make sure their information is accurate. It’s up to the poll workers to not allow signatures that aren’t close to matching.
Voting is a sacred right, any justification for altering the rules or making special allowances for some destroys the process.
I need to congratulate all the non-voting registered voters in Normal. Because you stayed home, you will now be blessed with a multi-purpose sports facility and higher taxes.
How easy is it to forge a signature? You are theorizing that someone walks into a polling place, states the name of a registered voter, and somehow perfectly forges their signature? The fraudster would have to have a copy of the signature before hand to even practice doing it right to have a shot of getting it past an election judge. To that point IDs can be copied also. But again, they would need to perfect copy a legitimate driver’s license or comparable ID to make it past an election judge. Driver’s licenses are probably harder to spoof because of the design features but signatures are not that easy unless you are a world class forger.
Tiritilli lost because not enough people voted. Not because of some grand scheme to vote fraudulently. If it were the other way around, you would be defending Tiritilli if allegations of voter fraud were brought up.
Maybe I didn’t say it clearly enough: They found numerous signatures that aren’t close. Those people should not have been allowed to vote since the signature is the only check available.
Just a quick remark here. with all due respect: They may believe they have found signatures that aren’t close. That has not been proven. That’s what the Circuit Court Judge will decide should it go that far. Sadly, it comes down to, in my opinion, that election judges must become handwriting experts. Or, the challengers become handwriting experts, etc. What would alleviate any question on cases such as this, is for there to be a change in this most antiquated way of checking voter ID’s on election day in Illinois To say however, that votes should not be counted because there is not an exact match to a signature, is not the way to go, especially here in McLean County. The chance of someone committing a felony by forging a signature, in a Polling Place in Normal where many of the local judges know a large majority of the voters, is not likely. Possible? Sure. Likely? No. Remember also, that a judge can allow a voter to vote if they know them in person. I know in fact, of one signature in question that didn’t match, was a voter known by all the judges. So common sense, fairness and good jugement, which our judges have a good reputation for, come into play. To stay to “throw out the votes” for a perceived but not proven mismatch, is not fair to the voter and to the process. But, at the same time, it’s always good to question, and to be on guard, on the rare occasion here in McLean County, where someone will want to commit a felony, in voting for a Mayoral race. Because trust me. If someone wants to forge a signature to vote, they will face a felony charge. Kathy Michael, McLean Couty Clerk
I sign my name multiple times a month, perhaps 200 times. Many of my signatures are illegible except the first letter of my first and last name. None of the election judges are handwriting experts so actually forging a signature is easy. Years ago, as an election judge myself, our class included about two minutes of instruction regarding recognizing legitimate signatures. There is no reason to theorize fact, Green Giant except of course in your libtard defense of idiocy.
As a certified election judge, we are taught that you don’t have to be able to read the signature, the way they look just has to match. It’s the judge’s duty to contest mismatches. Realistically, that probably doesn’t happen as often as it should.
Those signatures not matching the cards, should be thrown out. We had over 200 signatures thrown out by the BEC on Tari Renners Primary Petitions and some were forgeries. In fact, one person admitted under oath at the hearing, that he forged his wife’s signature. So, if the the judges allowed someone to vote with unmatchable signatures, then that vote should be thrown out.
There is no way to match a voter registration signature to a ballot, so how would you know which vote to throw out?
The election would have to be thrown out!
There is no way to match,,,are you kidding me? Then there would be no point of signing the card in the first place! My gawd Cavewoman were you born B.C. and that far behind the times?
That’s not what was said – please re-read.
Yes there is a way to match signatures. The election commission keeps signatures on computer files in their office. The forms signed at the voting places can be used to compare signatures.
I actually had to resign my card on election day because my signature has become so poor since I registered to vote. So they do look at it onsite.
It looks like the discovery recount didn’t make a significant difference. So we will have to see what he does.
It depended on what location you voted at.