Lately, there has been a lot of attention to the electoral process, especially mail-in voting and how it is verified.

On Feb. 14, an employee from the Maricopa County Elections Department explained how the election process works.

Once your ballot arrives, the verification process begins. The process begins by matching all the signatures a person has on file, signatures that have been tracked over the person's entire life.

“When you went to check in on the paper list, you signed it, and we have it,” said Vote-by-Mail Director Reynaldo Valenzuela. “You went to look at the new electronic poll book, we have that signature. You voted by mail-in ballot for decades, we have that signature.”

Our trained staff then looks for that person's specific writing style. There are six characteristics in total, from curved loops to straight lines, proportions to position. It can also explain changes in signatures over the years.

“A lot of people sometimes panic, 'What sign should I get?'” Valenzuela said. “As public information, I will tell you what you usually use.”

The worker can then check the signature match or flag it as an “exception” and send it to the second level without seeing who the person voted for.

“So they have to make a decision that they either agree that it's consistent or that they can make this good along with all the other signature examples,” Valenzuela said. I did.

If that's not enough, election officials are required by law to contact the voters in question directly. Then randomly test her 2% of all ballots.

“Please know that it is a safe and secure process,” Valenzuela said. “There are multiple layers and multiple levels of validation before you get to the aggregation tool.”

Officials said that despite some misconceptions, AI is not part of the vote-counting system and that if it were to be introduced in the future, it would first have to be approved by lawmakers.

Track your ballot – Maricopa County

https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/track-your-ballot.html