Old North News

A judge’s rejection of a North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) appeal over signature verification by county election officials on mail ballots undermines a “commonsense approach” to enforcing state law, says an executive with a public interest law firm.

“Mail ballots are executed outside of the supervision of election officials and, therefore, vulnerable to bad actors, so this requirement ensures the voter signed the ballot and not someone else,” Lisa Dixon, executive director of the Lawyers Democracy Fund, a public interest law firm specializing in election integrity, told Old North News.

“Without means for election officials to enforce requirements in the law, the rule of law in elections means less than it did before,” she added. “Signature matching is an important procedure used by dozens of other states to safeguard election integrity and improve voter confidence.”

Lisa Dixon | Provided

In a Monday bench ruling, Wake County Superior Court Judge Stephan Futrell denied the NCGOP’s motion for a temporary restraining order, preventing the use of signature matching in the 2022 general election, according to an AP report. Current state law requires that all absentee voters complete their ballots with two witnesses or a notary. The NCGOP sought to compare signatures on the ballot request forms and return envelopes with the signatures on file in voter registration records.

The State Board of Elections had previously rejected an initial signature matching proposal in July over concerns of unequal voting access.

The NCGOP filed the motion for a temporary restraining order and a motion for a preliminary injunction on Sept. 29, responding to the Board’s directive prohibiting county election officials from verifying the signatures.

“(The) State Board’s ruling is that if there is a signature, and there are two witness signatures on the line, then the application must be approved,” the motion for the Temporary Restraining Order said. “It does not matter if there appears to be any discrepancy as long as there are three signatures on the container-return (envelope) then it must be approved. This interpretation is a far cry from the language (of the law).”

The GOP’s statement announcing the filings noted that the Board was being represented the "Elias Law Group, founded by Marc Elias, the former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer of Steele Dossier fame."

“Elias has been ridiculed in federal court for attempting to undermine elections and has been sanctioned in another federal court for a ‘lack of candor,’” the statement said. “His firm's involvement is a harbinger of weakened election security for the voters of North Carolina.”

Next steps for the party are unclear; a spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.