LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — More than 13,000 mail-in ballots were not counted across Nevada as of Friday due to signature issues, data from the state secretary of state’s office said.
As of noon Friday, 13,030 mail-in ballots statewide needed a signature cure — meaning a voter needed to verify their identity in order for the vote to count because a signature did not match the one on file or there was no signature on the ballot envelope at all.
The 13,000-or-so ballots represent about 2% of all mail-in ballots returned this election, data said. The majority of the ballots are from nonpartisan votes or voters who are members of a minority party.
County clerks had successfully processed 18,648 signature cures as of Friday morning, data said.
Newer and younger voters who rarely use or who never learned to write in cursive represent the largest group of mail-in voters whose ballots need curing, Democratic Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said Tuesday.
“Young voters don’t have a long history of voting, right?” Aguilar said. “The signature that they have is the signature on their voter registration form and sometimes it’s in a digital form at the DMV. Or also it’s their paper registration or just their driver’s license. Those are their signatures and without a long history, it’s hard to compare their signatures.”