Do election officials check mailed-in ballots to verify the voter's identity?
States employ various methods to confirm the validity of ballots submitted by mail (or dropped off before or on election day). In 31 states, voters sign an affidavit on the ballot and election officials match those signatures against those on file.
Some states are even more stringent, requiring a witness or notary’s signature as well as the voter’s signature. Others require a copy of the voter’s identification document to be returned with the ballot.
Six states and the District of Columbia check for signatures on every ballot, but don’t require verification unless there is suspicion of fraud.
Washington, Oregon and Colorado, which run elections entirely by mail, rejected relatively more mail ballots than any other states in 2016, most commonly because of issues with signatures.
