I rarely take this blog into anything remotely political, so
let’s do a preamble and get things started.
·
This post is about what ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME –
for the runoff voting.
·
This is NOT a political post. It applies to
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents (and all others)
·
This is NOT a post about the good or bad about mail
in voting.
·
This is NOT a post about taking sides or making
any suggestions.
·
This IS a post about making you aware of something
that can endanger YOUR VOTE.
·
And finally – I have only GOOD to say about
Bexar County Elections Department – they were incredibly friendly, willing to
help and quite accommodating. Seriously folks – five stars+.
a)
Had I voted in person; my signature could have
been verified
b)
I have served as an in-person election judge, not
easy, no plans to do it again
Got all that out of the way – this is what happened:
I decided to register to vote by mail. Never really had a reason to do that before, but now that I am age eligible, I thought why not go for the experience. I registered and then voted.
Much to my shock and horror, my vote was RETURNED - uncounted. I was NOT happy – quite the opposite.
I called the Bexar County Elections Department – ready for bear! (if you are not local, Bexar is pronounced as bear) During the call, I engaged with a couple different folks who explained that my voting signature did not match my registration signature. They had 3 people look at it and all 3 decided it was not the same person signing…. ME!
I asked for proof. Since both documents had my home address –
and they matched – they agreed to mail both documents to me.
On receipt, I recognized both signatures and, in my mindset,
there was enough similarity (albeit peculiarity) that they should have known it
was ME! And I set out to prove that.
I asked a few friends to look at two signatures and tell me if it was the same person – I did not give all the details shared here so as not to sway opinions. I also cropped out the document and gave my friends the “signatures” to minimize the background information. Much to my embarrassment, 100% of my friends made the same decision that the election judges at Bexar County Elections Department made.
Shame on me!
I am sharing the documents here, but obviously I cannot have
my signature all over the internet so personal information is blocked. Sorry, but
I understand my “stuff” is already in the dark web at least 7 times and I do
not want to give the bad guys more.
SO HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU? Make SURE you sign your registration and your
ballot with the SAME SIGNATURE.
Remember, you are not there in person for the judges to verify
that you are who you say you are.
I have a few signatures that I use and will have to be more
careful if voting by mail. That choice and to make my vote count is up to me to
get it right!
Thanks for reading.
ONE MORE THOUGHT:
You are asked to sign the outer envelope to validate that the content is indeed your vote. That means your signature in openly exposed. Is THAT a good idea? I am opposed. If there was fraud on the inside signature, why would another signature on the outside matter?
