After a long night of eye-crossing work, Denver election signature verifiers at the Clerk and Recorders Office were back at their desks Wednesday dressed in their most comfortable clothing, tired eyes on swooping y’s.
The white board along a wall in Denver’s ballot verification room announced a final schedule update: “We made it!”
By Thursday afternoon, bipartisan teams of two will finish comparing voters’ signatures on incoming ballots. They’ve been at it since Oct. 14.
These signature experts verify an average of 300 signatures per hour, comparing a voter’s most recent signature with the handwriting on their 2024 ballot. When the handwriting doesn’t match, the ballots are challenged.
Thousands of ballots identified by red “Challenged Ballot” signs waiting in U.S. Postal service tubs.
In a CSI moment, Denver’s eagle-eyed group caught a batch of 60 ballots with mis-matching signatures that, suspiciously, were traced to a similar mailing address — a …