Federal judge invalidates New Hampshire ballot-signature law (Washington Times)

This ruling makes sense. Your signature changes as you age, or if you have a disability. In 2008, Democratic Congressional candidate Faye Armitage and I visited five Election Supervisors' offices to examine her petitions that were being discarded. The fairest office was here in St. Johns County, where Penny Halyburton ran a tight ship, with fairness and an open mind . The cruelest included the then Supervisor of Elections of Flagler County, a Democrat, who mocked voters' signatures and laughed at them (and us for questioning her). I noted their birth dates. I countered that these were working people who were older than when they first registered to vote, who may have had strokes or heart attacks, with signatures to match. She did not give a fig.




Federal judge invalidates New Hampshire ballot-signature law

By Alex Swoyer - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 14, 2018
A federal judge on Tuesday invalidated a New Hampshire law aimed at identifying voter fraud, saying it was unfair to judge voters by their signatures.
The law required election officials to match signatures from voters’ applications for absentee ballots with their signatures on their actual ballots. If officials deemed them a mismatch, the ballots were tossed.

Some 275 voters had their ballots disqualified during the 2016 election.
Judge Landya McCafferty said the measure violated the voters’ due process rights because they did not have a way to challenge their vote being tossed.
The court also found issue with election monitors, who weren’t handwriting experts, being the arbitrators.
“In law and in practice, the ultimate determination is left to the sole discretion of the moderator and is almost entirely insulated from meaningful scrutiny,” the judge said.
The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law, saying it violated the Constitution and discriminated against people with disabilities. One of the plaintiffs, whose vote was tossed, was blind.
“We’ve said all along that people should not be denied their fundamental right to vote because of penmanship. We’re glad the court agreed,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.
Courts have also been critical of signature-matching laws in Arizona and Illinois.