Report: Wash. voters see disparities in ballot challengesFree

Younger voters and voters of color in Washington see their ballots challenged for signature issues more often than their older and white counterparts.

That’s according to an analysis of state election data by University of Washington researchers presented to state lawmakers Wednesday. Meanwhile, thousands more votes than usual went uncounted in last month’s primary due to delivery lags from the U.S. Postal Service.

Ballot signature challenges have declined in recent years, based on data from the general elections between 2020 and 2025.

“We hope that that will be a continued trend,” said Scott Allard, co-director of the UW Elections Database Project. “And it certainly was in the primary election in 2026.”

But while white voters have seen 1.5 percent of their votes scrutinized for signature discrepancies, it’s 1.9 percent for Black voters, 2 percent for Asian voters and 2.2 percent for Hispanic voters, according to the UW research.

Washington doesn’t collect race and ethnicity data from voters upon their registration, so researchers used an algorithm to identify their most likely race.

The disparity is more stark among age groups. Signature challenges decrease with age, from 5.3 percent among voters 18 to 25 to 0.7 percent for those 66 and older.

There isn’t much of a difference in ballot challenges between urban and rural voters, Allard noted.

Voters returning their ballots in Washington’s vote-by-mail system must sign the return envelope they place in a mailbox or dropbox. But their votes won’t be accepted if their signature doesn’t match what the local election office has on file or if it’s missing altogether. Those whose signatures are challenged can fix the issue, known as curing, to ensure their vote is counted. This can be done by filling out a form and returning it to the county election office.

If a ballot is not cured, election officials won’t count it. In the 2025 general election, 58.5 percent of challenged voters cured their ballots, according to the researchers.

“We actually do a really good job of curing our ballots in the state,” Allard said, noting that the percentage has slightly decreased in the past couple of years. “Any efforts we can do to help improve those rates, I think, matter.”

The same disparities remain for those who cure their ballot.

White voters reportedly fixed the issues on more than 59 percent of their challenged ballots. Black, Hispanic and Asian voters corrected less than half.

The youngest voters also cure their ballots less than half of the time, compared to 72 percent for elderly voters. This means white and older voters are less likely to have their votes rejected, according to the research.