The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU) announced via Twitter Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against the state for invalidating at least 45,000 vote-by-mail ballots in the November 2016 election.
The ballots were allegedly rejected due to signature mismatches. According to the ACLU, voters were not given notice or an opportunity to fix the problem.
“People should not be denied their right to vote because a government official doesn’t like their penmanship, but that’s exactly what is happening in California,” said senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, Michael Risher. “One disenfranchised voter would be too many, and we’re seeing tens of thousands of wrongly rejected ballots every election cycle in California alone.”
The lawsuit, La Follette v. Padilla, asks the state to notify voters of any signature mismatches and the chance to fix the error before any ballot is discarded.
“Thousands more Californians stand to lose their vote in next year’s elections if this issue is not rectified now,” said senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, Julie Ebenstein.
No other information was immediately available.
