Method and system for validating mail ballots

Abstract

Methods and systems for validating signatures on ballots sent through the mail that do not require significant amounts of hardware and/or software to perform are provided. The envelope for returning a ballot by mail includes a signature area in which the voter will sign and a reserved area in which no markings are provided. When the envelope is received at the registrar's office, the voter's identification is scanned and the voter's registration signature is retrieved from a registration database. The signature retrieved from the registration database is then provided in the reserved area. The signatures can then be compared directly on the envelope, without the need to image the voter's signature from the envelope and without the use of monitors to display the imaged and retrieved signatures.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.