Benton County officials sued for rejecting Latino voter ballots 3+ times more often

Marissa Reyes cast her ballot in the 2020 primary election, but her votes didn’t count.

The Benton County resident’s signature on the ballot’s outer return envelope did not match the one on file with her voter registration record.

Despite being notified by mail that her ballot had been rejected, Reyes was unable to fix the issue with the Benton County Auditor’s Office.

State-provided data for all special, primary and general elections in 2019 and 2020 show that Latino voters — or people with Spanish surnames — in Benton County were 3.2 times more likely to have their ballots rejected for a mismatched signature compared to Anglo voters, according to a federal lawsuit.

In that same time period, Latino voters in Yakima County were 4.3 times more likely to have their ballots rejected than Anglos, and Chelan County voters were 6.2 times more likely.

The rejection rate in Franklin County was 4.0 but the lawsuit did not name that county.

The Eastern Washington counties are just three of the two dozen counties across the state that were above the average of 2.5 for those two years, according to the Washington Secretary of State.

But Benton, Yakima and Chelan were the only counties named in the recently filed lawsuit that takes on the disproportionate number of rejected Hispanic voters.

“Thousands of Latino voters have been, and continue to be, denied their fundamental right to vote due to the discriminatory application and effect of the state’s ballot signature matching provisions and processes,” says the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Washington.

The lawsuit says that more than 4,500 Latino voters were denied their right to vote in 2020 elections.

Specifically in the 2020 general election, mismatched signatures accounted for 74% of all rejected ballots statewide.

And Latino voters were on average 3 times more likely than Anglo voters to be rejected for the sole reason of a perceived mismatched signature, according to the suit.

Benton County rejections in that election were near the state average of 3 times more likely not to be counted, while Chelan County was 3.2 and Yakima County was 3.9.

“In the counties with the highest percentage of Latino voters, the difference is more pronounced,” the suit states. “The greater the potential political representation of the Latino community the more disparate treatment voters faced.”

It also states that Latino voter turnout tripled in 2020 — a presidential election year — compared to 2019, and the rate of rejection due to mismatched signatures doubled.

Federal lawsuit

Reyes brought the civil action on May 7, along with the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Latino Community Fund.

The lawsuit is against Benton County Auditor Brenda Chilton, Prosecutor Andy Miller and Commission Chairman Jerome Delvin. The three make up the Benton County Canvassing Review Board, which technically certifies the results and can call for a review of any problems.

The complaint initially named Xan Augerot — a commissioner in Oregon’s Benton County — instead of Delvin. It was amended last week to replace Augerot’s name with Delvin’s.

The other defendants are: Yakima County’s Auditor Charles Ross, Prosecutor Joe Brusic and Commissioner Ron Anderson; and in Chelan County, Auditor Skip Moore, Prosecutor Douglas Shae and Commissioner Bob Bugert.

Federal Judge Sal Mendoza Jr. has been assigned the case. The defendants have 21 days, or until May 28, to file an answer to the allegations.

Chilton told the Tri-City Herald that they have been instructed not to talk about the legal action until their attorneys formally respond.

She’s in her 12th year as auditor and said this is the first time she’s been named in a lawsuit.

Chilton said she appreciates that the suit explains that she and the other eight are being sued only in their official capacity as members of their respective canvassing boards.

Envelope signatures

Washington state went entirely to mail-in ballots in 2013. For a ballot to be counted under state law, the voter must sign the outer return envelope, which includes a printed declaration.

Local election officers then undertake a signature-matching process to verify each ballot’s envelope to voter registration records, the lawsuit states.

If a reviewer determines that the signatures do not match, the ballot is flagged and not counted.

The voter is first notified by mail, and then by phone, if there is a mismatched or missing signature and allowed to fix it up until one day before the election is certified.

The lawsuit says the characteristics that election officers use to evaluate signatures include:

▪ The signature is handwritten.

▪ Agreement in style and general appearance, including basic construction, skill, alignment, fluency and a general uniformity and consistency between signatures.

▪ Agreement in the proportions of individual letters, height to width, and heights of the upper to lower case letters.

▪ Irregular spacing, slants or sizes of letters that are duplicated in both signatures.

A single distinctive trait is insufficient to conclude that the signatures are by the same writer.

“There must be a combination or cluster of shared characteristics” to say it’s the same person, just as a cluster of differences is needed to conclude the signatures were done by two separate writers, the suit states.

Voters can substitute initials or a common nickname as long as the surname and handwriting are clearly the same.

“The Washington State Voter Registration Form publicly available does not inform voters that their signature will later be used to verify their mail ballots,” according to Reyes’ complaint.

“Regardless of a curing period or provision, voters may still have their vote denied due to a signature mismatch or mis-verification even after a voter attempts to cure their ballot by either appearing in-person at the county elections office or by mailing in the required forms.”

The lawsuit says that the defendants’ system of relying on signature verification by “untrained or somewhat trained persons” is a flawed way of determining if a mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast.

“Generally, no two signatures, even by the same signer, are the same,” it says. “Moreover, the signature on file that officials are comparing to the signed affidavit may be years if not decades old.

“... Signature matching processes are particularly burdensome and harmful for racial and ethnic minority voters,” says the lawsuit.