I don't have experience voting by mail, and I apologize if this is obvious, but I think some blind people think signatures need to be legible, so they try hard to make their signatures legible and look like what they think their signature should look like. In fact, signatures just need to be unique and relatively consistent. I don't think about my signature when I sign something. I just use pretty much the same scribble all of the time. It's definitely not legible. Sighted people don't put any effort into making their signature legible. I'm not sure if this helps at all or not.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List <VICUG-
> [log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Ana G
> Sent: Monday, October 26, 2020 7:57 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VICUG-L] OT -- Mail-In Voting and Blind Signatures
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> 
> Apologies if you receive this more than once.
> 
> 
> I'm posting this because I suspect others here will encounter the same issue.
> 
> 
> In this year's presidential election, I voted by mail. I did it the same
> way I've done it since the mid nineties. My mom read me the ballot and
> filled out my choices. She showed me where to sign. Then a day or two
> later, she slipped the ballot into an official dropbox while she was
> running errands. I've never had a problem ... until now.
> 
> 
> With the extra vigilance brought on by the current political climate,
> someone at the elections office noticed the signature on my ballot
> doesn't match the signature on my voter registration form, so last week,
> I received a letter that gave me several options. They all amounted to
> my providing a new signature.  I didn't think that would help. Since I'm
> unable to actually see what I'm writing, I felt pretty certain the third
> signature wouldn't match the other two.
> 
> 
> I decided to go to the elections office with my letter. The person who
> waited on me was very nice. I had to explain three or four times before
> she understood that my signature is never the same, but once she did,
> she told me to have a seat while she spoke to her supervisor. Here's
> what they came up with:
> 
> 
> 1. I signed the letter, and she witnessed the signature.
> 
> 
> And
> 
> 
> 2. I need to send in a new voter registration form with my signature.
> 
> 
> The point of doing both of these things is to put several versions of my
> signature on file so that anyone checking in future can have an idea of
> what makes sense for my writing.
> 
> 
> I suspect that there will be a lot of variation in how the mismatched
> signatures of blind people is handled. I'm getting the word out to the
> community to lessen the unpleasant surprise and to give people a sense
> of what to do. I'm also curious to know what experiences others have had.
> 
> 
> Ciao
> 
> 
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