Standards for validity—more specificity is better.
One of the weakest portions of most states' laws is the lack of specificity around what constitutes a valid signature. Most laws are clear that unregistered voters are not considered valid, but they do not provide clarification around other common questions. Our ability to successfully prosecute fraud relies upon clear standards.
It is best to require a current address for each registered voter. Many laws allow any address within a certain jurisdiction to be counted as valid, but this means that petitioners can (and do) literally make up addresses for voters. It does require a voter to have an updated record with the Secretary of State, but this is already required in most states for the purposes of polling places or mailing ballots.
It would be helpful to delineate standards around what constitutes forgery, and therefore what can be removed as a valid signature. One example is stating explicitly that handwriting must match across the entire line, which should be no problem if a voter has filled in each field him/herself, as previously discussed. Another is stating a reasonable standard in comparing the signature on a petition to the voter's signature on file- if there is not a reasonable match, the signature should be discarded.
It is advisable to require voters to provide an updated signature for the voter file every 5-10 years, so that a comparison will yield current results (this warrants more discussion and assessment).
