SIGNATURE VERIFICATION & ELECTION INTEGRITY
(Colorado Elections #21, #22, #23, #24 — by Vince Phillips)
Election judges who decide whether mail ballots count typically receive only a few hours of online training — nowhere near the years of study required to qualify as a handwriting expert in a Colorado courtroom — yet their decisions are final for thousands of ballots each cycle. Compounding the problem, the drop in cursive handwriting instruction after 2010 means millions of younger voters never developed consistent signatures, and states with heavy mail voting are already seeing rejection rates for voters 18–24 run three times the statewide average. Colorado officials point to “layered security” — BallotTrax tracking, signature verification, and risk-limiting audits — but BallotTrax only tracks the envelope, audits cover a single hand-picked race per county, and the signature itself is signed alone with no witness required, replacing what was once a multi-step in-person process with a single, adjustable check.
HOUSE DISTRICT 60
(Matt Alexander)
Matt Alexander, a fourth-generation Coloradan, small business owner, and current school board director, is running for the Colorado House on a platform of TABOR protection, small business deregulation, water rights defense, Second Amendment rights, and parental control in education. He frames the race as a contrast between candidates backed by outside independent expenditure committees and a campaign beholden only to district residents.
Support Independent Local Journalism — High Country Advocate was created as a real alternative to regional media that too often silences dissenting voices while taking sides in the political struggle. Producing in-depth, unflinching reporting like this series and others is expensive: servers, editing, research time, and legal review all add up quickly. If these articles have informed you or given you new perspective, please consider supporting HCA with a paid subscription — every subscriber helps keep this reporting strong and independent.
