More than a month after voting by mail in the presidential election, South Los Angeles resident Taylor Johnson learned that his vote had not been counted because election workers had taken issue with the way he signed his name on the ballot envelope.
The elections office told Johnson that his ballot signature didn’t match another signature they had on file. Johnson wasn’t sure which signature that was, but he knew it would have looked different: After printing his name for years, he perfected his cursive signature only a few months ago.
“Most people my age just kind of scribble,” said Johnson, 20, who works as an administrative assistant at a medical imaging clinic.
For young Americans who rarely sign anything beyond a paper receipt or a coffee shop iPad, a written signature just doesn’t mean much anymore — except when voting by mail, when a signature is critical to determining whether a mail ballot is counted.
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