NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Do you remember how you signed your registration when you first signed up to vote? If you’re voting by mail this year, that’s the signature election workers will use to confirm it’s really you.
If you’ve already received your mail-in ballot for the November election, election workers have already verified your signature once.
But election officials say the most important signature is the one on the yellow secrecy envelope that will cover your ballot.
"There's one spot in the middle that we highlight, that’s where we need your signature, that’s the only signature on this ballot packet that we need," said Jeff Roberts, Davidson County Elections Administrator.
Election workers will compare that signature with how you signed your latest voter registration or your driver's license.
So how close do the signatures have to match? Davidson County Election workers say they’re understanding about variations.
"If you leave off your middle name or middle initial, or for me, my name's 'Jeffrey' but if I sign 'Jeff,' that’s not a problem," Roberts said.
They say they’ll only flag large variations on signatures, and try to contact you.
"If it doesn’t look anything like your signature, then we’ll reach out to you on that request," Roberts said.
But the key is time. If your ballot arrives on Election Day and it's questioned, there may be no time to correct it before its too late.
And election officials say the bigger issue is remembering to sign the yellow envelope in the first place. In August, 11 absentee ballots out of about 27,000 in Davidson County weren't counted because there was no signature at all.
The Davidson County Election commission says it's important to remember, if you voted by mail in August and you want to do it again, you still have to submit a new vote-by-mail application for the November election.
