Journalist Tests Nevada's Signature Verification, Finds 89% Failure Rate
Victor Joecks of the Las Vegas Review-Journal finds flawed security measure
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The signature verification process in Nevada was tested by journalists who discovered a massive failure rate.
Victor Joecks of the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted the issue is more profound than any single contest.
“Leave aside the presidential race. Even small amounts of fraud can swing results,” he wrote, highlighting a race where a state senator won an election by 24 votes.
Joecks said he proved a voter could vote many times in his piece.
“Clark County election officials accepted my signature on eight ballot return envelopes during the general election."
"It’s more evidence that signature verification is a flawed security measure,” he wrote.
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Among the “facts” assembled on a state website, Joecks discovered this gem:
“All mail ballots must be signed on the ballot return envelope."
"This signature is used to authenticate the voter and confirm that it was actually the voter and not another person who returned the mail ballot.”
“I wanted to test that claim by simulating what might happen if someone returned ballots that didn’t belong to him or her,” he wrote.
🚨A whistleblower has come forward in Clark County saying they witnessed mail ballots being counted without signatures being verified⬇️ 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ixM8h09aZw
— Nevada GOP (@NVGOP) November 8, 2020
Joecks, who had nine co-conspirators, wrote their names to copy and try to imitate his handwriting.
The citizens then had to sign the ballots to guarantee no fraud perpetrated while conducting the test.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria told Joecks that if ballots signed by someone else “came through, we would still have the signature match to rely on for identity,” he said.
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When asked about his faith in his office's ability to find a fake ballot out of a sea of the documents, he said:
“I’m confident that the process has been working throughout this process.”
“He was wrong,” Joecks wrote.
“Eight of the nine ballots went through. In other words, signature verification had an 89 percent failure rate in catching mismatched signatures.”
The journalist was not surprised by the result, given the stories of dead people voting, while others were told signatures were valid on a ballot they never received.
According to one whistleblower, elections officials told him to process ballots without checking the signatures.
“County officials aren’t working proactively to determine whether unscrupulous actors abused this vulnerability in a widespread fashion,” he said.
Gloria said his office finds fraud when told about it.
“So if a criminal doesn’t admit he committed voter fraud, Clark County is unlikely to find out about it. Willful ignorance isn’t an election security strategy,” Joecks wrote.
“It’s unclear how much voter fraud took place in Nevada. But it’s clear signature verification isn’t the fail-safe security check elections officials made it out to be,” he wrote.
