PITTSBURGH _ The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has already weighed in this election cycle on the legality of ballot drop boxes and the deadline for counting postmarked mail-in votes, will again decide on a crucial aspect of electoral administration in the swing state: whether counties are authorized or required to reject voted ballots on the basis of signature analysis.
In an order filed Wednesday, the court _ granting the petition of Pennsylvania's top election official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar _ said it would take up the issue of signature verification, which is the process of county elections staff reviewing whether signatures on voted ballots match the signatures in a voter's registration record.
Boockvar, who has warned that thousands of Pennsylvania voters would be disenfranchised if "arbitrary signature comparisons and challenges to signature variations are allowed to be used as a basis for rejecting mail and absentee ballots," is seeking a declaration that counties may not reject applications or voted ballots because of a "subjective perception of signature variation."
The court will decide "(w)hether the Election Code authorizes or requires county election boards to reject voted absentee or mail-in ballots during pre-canvassing and canvassing based on signature analysis where there are alleged or perceived signature variances," it wrote in its order.
