What’s in a signature?

With all of the controversy surrounding the upcoming Matanuska Electric Association election, some very interesting points have been made causing me to wonder if some of my past votes were counted.

Recently, I found another glitch in the mail-in election process. For many years, I carefully read the election pamphlet, voted for board members I believed were the best candidates, reviewed the proposed bylaw changes and voted either no or yes. I placed my mail-in ballot in the envelope and signed the signature line on the outside of the envelope.

Who would have thought the signature would be the tricky part?

MEA ballots are verified by signature. If our signatures do not match the signature card MEA has on file for us, our ballots are not counted. The glitch is that we won’t know if this happened unless we attend the annual meeting March 1 at Colony High School. MEA will not notify us if our signatures do not match its records — ever. Officials there used to notify us (just as MTA still does). I wonder why this was changed?

Concerned about this, a friend of mine stopped in at MEA customer service in Palmer on Monday to check her signature. The very friendly customer service worker told her some signatures are in the computer and others are still in paper files. After some searching, the original card was found. Obvious to her, her signature had changed since she signed the card years ago.

According to experts, most signatures change over the course of a lifetime far more than any other aspect of handwriting. A shaky hand, even standing versus sitting while signing, can change a signature. My friend asked if she could update her signature. She was told no. She could have done so by Jan. 16, but now she would have to wait until the next election cycle.

I’d never heard of this rule. So, I called MEA’s Wasilla office and was told, in fact, people can change signature cards at any time and have them used for voter verification. A supervisor confirmed this, which is comforting. I hope the Palmer and Wasilla staffs have a chance to sort out this confusion so all MEA members can take this step to make sure their votes count. Perhaps some universal rules dealing with this sort of thing, as well as notification to the public about it, would be helpful.

I suggest you drop by MEA customer service and check out your signature card. Or better yet, just attend the annual meeting March 1 and find out for sure if your vote will be counted. If it isn’t, vote in person at the meeting. Then visit our very friendly customer service staff and fill out a new card after the election. I know I will.

Gini King-Taylor

Wasilla