More than 10,000 mail-in ballots have been rejected in Nevada, a number that is expected to rise, because voters' DMV signatures do not match their ballot signatures.
Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said more than 13,100 voters who sent mail-in ballots in the state's most populous counties, Clark and Washoe, need to fix, or "cure," their ballots because their signatures do not match what the state has in its system, marking a higher number of rejected ballots than 2020 and 2022.
"When you start to look at the data and you start to realize how high it is, it makes you nervous, because, again, these races are so close, the margins are so slim, that I don't want to look at the numbers tonight and know that we have to wait for ballots to be cured," Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar told The New York Times on Tuesday.
"We need to ensure that every voter's voice is heard."
Aguilar added young voters' nonchalance when signing the digital pad at the DMV is partially to blame.
"It's mostly the fact that young people don't have signatures these days," he said. "And when they did register to vote through the automatic voter registration process, they signed a digital pad at D.M.V., and that became their license signature."
Aguilar assured voters in every county that the signature verification process is "being applied equally across the state."
Originally published by Latin Times
