Lawsuit filed against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold by the Vet Voice Foundation and two individual voters, challenging Colorado’s signature matching requirement for mail-in ballots. The signature match requirement in Colorado requires election officials to compare the signature on a mail-in ballot envelope to the voter’s signature on file. Colorado law has long required all voters to be identified before their votes may be counted.
Colorado has an all-mail voting system where all registered voters in Colorado automatically receive ballots in the mail, leading 98% of Coloradoans to vote by mail. Revoking the signature match process for mail ballots, therefore, threatens to be very disruptive.
The plaintiffs seek a court ruling to declare the use of signature matching unduly burdensome and racially discriminatory in violation of the Colorado Constitution and to prohibit its future use. On May 31, 2023, the Colorado trial court permitted RITE-supported parties to defend the requirement. RITE argues Colorado officials are obligated under the Colorado Constitution to protect elections against abuse and that signature verification is a straightforward way to fulfill that requirement, in addition to giving Colorado voters confidence in their elections. Moreover, signature matching is far less burdensome than identification requirements that would be required at the polls.
