Ballot Processing Observations

I received an e-mail from another PCO who said that our County Auditor was verifying by computer signature of the orignial registration card and the ballot. He questioned whether this was a tactic to throw additional ballots out. I've been observing the ballot processing and there's nothing to worry about. It is true that they are using a computer to compare the signatures but only to display a scan of the signature on the ballot to a scan of the original signature -- a trained worker actually does the comparison. If they question the signature, the original envelope goes to another person who tries to check the signature again. While I was observing, only 10% were challenged in the first step and 50% of those were because the voter didn't use a dark enough ink on the ballot for the scanner to pick up a clear picture so a comparison to the paper ballot ws necessary.

Out of 69,400 votes processed so far, only 700 ballots have been challenged and most of those challenges are for other reasons (like a husband signing a wife's ballot and vise versa, change of address, change of name, unsigned ballots, etc.).

IMHO things are going well and it is a fair and well managed process.