{"id":1750,"date":"2024-12-12T12:46:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2024-12-12T12:46:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:46:19","slug":"trumps-appeal-to-the-young-white-male-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/2024\/12\/12\/trumps-appeal-to-the-young-white-male-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Sign Here"},"content":{"rendered":"
Isaac Oronsky<\/div>\n\n\n
A student\u2019s uncounted ballot pointed out Nevada\u2019s signature verification issues in the 2024 election<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In Feb. 2016, Jonni Winn went with her mother to the local elementary school to participate in the Democratic caucus for the Nevada primaries. The 11-year-old watched her mom vote for the candidate she liked best \u2014 that is, by moving to a section of the room that corresponded to that person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so much fun,\u201d Winn said. \u201cWatching her made me really excited to vote when I was older.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years later, Winn was ready to live that reality and vote in the 2024 presidential election. A lifelong Las Vegan, Winn chose to register to vote by mail in her hometown rather than in Eugene, where she is a sophomore at the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWatching her made me really excited to vote when I was older.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Winn also recognized the political implications of voting in Nevada, a swing state that could decide the outcome<\/a> of the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI figured I may as well vote at home where I\u2019ll feel important when I\u2019m watching the results,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winn mailed in her ballot in mid-October. A few days before the election, she checked her ballot\u2019s status on the Nevada voter portal. Her eyes widened as she read that her ballot had been received, but hadn\u2019t been counted, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wasn\u2019t alone. In the coming days, stories came out about other Nevadans having this same issue. Across the state, election officials reported having trouble verifying mail-in ballots because of signature mismatches, according to an article<\/a> on Insidehighered.com. The majority of problems were found in the ballots of Generation Z voters, due to a lack of signatures on record that could be used in the verification process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe signature that [younger voters] have is the signature on their voter registration form, and sometimes it\u2019s in a digital form at the DMV,\u201d said Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar outside a Las Vegas polling center on Nov. 5, according to the same article. \u201cWithout a long history, it\u2019s hard to compare their signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters were able to \u201ccure\u201d (fix) their ballot signatures until 5 p.m. on Nov. 12 by contacting their county election office, according to a press release<\/a> published by Aguilar\u2019s office the same day. Winn said she didn\u2019t realize that was a possibility until the deadline had already passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nevada, cursive education itself can be an issue. It\u2019s not a requirement for elementary schools in the state to teach cursive, said Shannon Lowery, a teacher at Helen Marie Smith Elementary school in Las Vegas. Because of this, she doesn\u2019t teach it in her class \u2014 though she wishes she could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Students] must be able to sign their name,\u201d said Lowery, who has taught third grade for a decade. \u201cWhen you sign an application for a job, college, driver\u2019s license\u2026 that shouldn\u2019t be the first time you\u2019re doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowery allows them to practice cursive using worksheets during her school\u2019s breakfast time at the beginning of each school day. She isn\u2019t able to provide them with in-depth instruction during those 15 minutes, but she hopes it can improve their writing skills, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, Lowery finds that many students are still not proficient in reading or understanding cursive. Her and her coworkers will sometimes pass notes to each other in cursive, knowing the students cannot decipher them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt sounds horrible, but it\u2019s our little secret language,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though not a statewide requirement, Winn was taught cursive at her elementary school. She said she passed the test on her first try and earned a \u201ccursive license.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I passed I did everything I could in cursive,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it only lasted for a month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to mail-in voting, Winn believes that there should be another system to verify ballots, because most people don\u2019t sign their name in cursive anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI signed [my driver\u2019s license] when I was 15, and now I\u2019m 19 \u2014 I\u2019d hope my handwriting has improved since then,\u201d Winn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cCursive is kind of a dying language.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lowery agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCursive is kind of a dying language,\u201d she said, and emphasized its inconsistency. \u201cMy signature changes from when I\u2019m signing a document at work to something like a check or if I\u2019m signing my kid\u2019s reading log.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final number of uncounted ballots<\/a> due to signature verification issues in Nevada is around 9,000 votes. Winn believes hers was among them, and is disappointed she didn\u2019t have a say in the election \u2014 one she said was important to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the signature issues, Winn is still looking forward to the opportunity to follow in her mom\u2019s footsteps and vote in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make sure I check my driver\u2019s license signature next time,\u201d Winn said as she clicked around the Nevada voter portal. \u201cBut I still check my status every once and a while \u2014 just in case anything has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student\u2019s uncounted ballot pointed out Nevada\u2019s signature verification issues in the 2024 election In Feb. 2016, Jonni Winn went with her mother to the local elementary school to participate in the Democratic caucus for the Nevada primaries. The 11-year-old watched her mom vote for the candidate she liked best \u2014 that is, by moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","pmpro_default_level":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post-election","pmpro-has-access"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Isaac Oronsky","author_link":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/author\/isaac-oronsky\/"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/top_category?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}