Unverified signatures slowing down ballot counts in Nevada

Signatures on ballots aren’t all matching those on file for voters in Nevada, and it’s slowing down the ballot count.
According to The Washington Post, thousands of voters in Nevada still need to verify their signatures so their ballots can be counted. As ballots are processed, that figure is likely to increase.
For states to count ballots, each ballot has to have a signature from the voter, and roughly two-thirds of states have a process by which voters are notified about their unverified signatures, called curing. In states without ballot curing processes, ballots with unverifiable signatures will not be counted.
This issue isn’t unique to Nevada, though.
Debra Cleaver, the founder of VoteAmerica, told the Post that rejected votes have been an issue for years, including in her home state of California. “… For years now, more than 3 percent of ballots have been rejected because the signatures don’t match. It is a problem at scale.”
Some of these inconsistencies come down to voter age. Young people tend not to have a consistent signature in general, much less on file. As for older voters, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar recognized that a signature can change over time. He also had a warning for people who have recently gotten married and haven’t changed their names on their voter registrations, which can also pose a problem come election day.
For Gen Z, Aguilar attributed some of the problem to the advent of electronic signatures. “When they did register to vote through the automatic voter registration process, they signed a digital pad at the DMV, and that became their license signature,” he said, per Business Insider.
Cleaver also identified another problem with ballot signatures, and one that’s on the rise in younger generations. “The secondary problem is that schools don’t teach cursive anymore.”
And they’ve stopped requiring the script be taught, with various schools dropping the lessons since 2010. Some states, though, have opted to reintroduce the skill into their school curriculums.
But for as long as signatures are used, there are likely to be problems with them.
Opponents of the current signatory process cite less problematic ways to verify ballots, like requiring all or part of the voter’s Social Security number and/or a birthday. The use of voter signatures in elections is “a vestige of something antiquated,” Cleaver told the Post, employing the example of electronic signatures being used for most things, including filing taxes and buying a house.
“There’s no other time in an American’s life where your manual signature is something that is necessary.”