Last May the Virginia State Board of Elections approved electronic signatures on absentee ballot applications. Unfortunately they failed to define what they meant by an electronic signature. Now the same staff who recommended that the citizen block on the voter registration form be optional has instructed registrars to accept a typed name with "electronic signature" in parenthesis behind it as an electronic signature. This is being exploited by third party entities who are submitting absentee ballot requests for voters without the voter being aware of the process.
The State Board of Election is meeting on October 6th and this may be on their agenda. It is critical to the integrity and uniformity of the elections process that they define an electronic signature for the purpose of signing an absentee ballot request as something that can be directly connected to the voter such as a user name and password, a biometric, a government supplied identification device with PKI technology or their actual signature on a pad. They must also vote to allow registrars to reject electronically signed absentee ballot applications that have been submitted by a third party when there is no proof the voter has signed the form.
Please contact the members of the State Board of Elections before their meeting on Tuesday 6 October to inform them of your concerns about the lack of definition in electronic signatures and urge them to define them in a manner that removes all doubt that the electronic signature is truly by the voter.
Chairman James B. Alcorn:
j.alcorn@elections.virginia.gov
Vice Chairman Clara Belle Wheeler:
clarabelle.wheeler@elections.virginia.gov
Secretary of the Board Singleton B. McAllister:
singleton.mcallister@elections.virginia.gov