RDAC Position
The RDAC supports changes to the Election Code that would facilitate voting by people with disabilities, including changes that provide for alternative means of identity verification for people who cannot sign their names consistently due to a disability.
Issue
In Utah, most elections are conducted primarily by mail, with options available for in-person ballot submission and voting. The current system requires each voter to sign an affidavit that is included with the mail-in ballot, whether the ballot is returned by mail or dropped in a collection box. Poll workers compare the signature on the ballot to a previously obtained signature to verify the identity of the voter prior to counting each ballot. However, some disabled voters are unable to provide signatures or unable to provide reproducible signatures that a poll worker will find acceptable. Some rare disease patients are among these disabled voters. Disabilities that preclude use of signatures for ballot verification should not prevent the disabled voters from casting ballots.
It is also important to provide easy access to information about how people who are unable to provide consistent signatures can vote.
