Who verifies signatures on a petition to ensure the proper number of valid signatures have been submitted?
For over 50 years the Office of Secretary of State has been charged by statute with verifying signatures on initiative and referendum petitions. The biggest challenge is reading the handwriting to determine who signed the petition, and then searching the 3.5 million voter registration records to determine if the signer is registered to vote. If the person is registered to vote, the signature on the petition is compared to the signature in the voter registration record in order to validate the signature. Many signatures will not be considered valid because the person is not registered to vote, the person signed the same initiative more than once, or the signature on the petition does not match the signature in the voter registration file.
