State law does not authorize or require signature comparison as a part of the voting process or during any post-election recount or audit. Instead, for security purposes, Wisconsin requires most absentee voters to show or provide a copy of their photo ID when requesting a ballot.
As a part of the absentee ballot counting process, every absentee certificate envelope is checked to ensure the voter and witness signed the certificate. However, nothing in Wisconsin law establishes a process for comparing those signatures, as there is not necessarily any original signature for them to be compared with. Signature matching is a specialized field, and Wisconsin election officials have received no training or certification in signature matching. For those reasons, conducting an audit of absentee voters’ signatures would be impractical and unwarranted.
If an absentee ballot is unfolded, that means the voter cast an absentee ballot in the clerk’s office on a piece of voting equipment known as the ES&S ExpressVote. The ExpressVote is a touch-screen ballot marking device (BMD) which prints the voter’s choices on a smaller paper ballot which does not need to be folded. ExpressVote ballots can be counted using the ES&S DS200 precinct scanner, just like regular sized paper ballots. ExpressVote BMDs are also used by people with disabilities to vote in person at polling places.
The clerk or deputy clerk is required to initial the absentee ballot before issuing it to the voter, so it is natural that many of them all have the same set of initials. More info about initials in this FAQ.
