Voters in Pierce County between the ages of 18 and 26 account for 51% of challenged ballots in Pierce County due to their signatures not matching those on file, the Pierce County Elections office announced in a recent news release.
If the signature on a ballot envelope doesn’t match the signature on file, that vote won’t count, the office said. Pierce County recently sent a postcard to 73,000 voters aged 18 to 26 (in addition to 17-year-olds eligible to vote in the 2025 general election), encouraging them to update their signature online at the Pierce County Elections website.
In Pierce County 9.4% of 18-year-old voters have had signature issues and 7.9% of 19-year-olds, according to the county. During the 2024 presidential election, Pierce County saw a strong voter turnout, with 76.73% of registered voters casting ballots.
“It’s an interesting challenge,” said Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer in a June news release. “On the one hand, we have more young voters in the system, which is awesome. On the other, we’re capturing that baseline signature while their handwriting styles are still developing. This often shows up as a mismatch when they cast their first ballot.”
Signature mismatches in Pierce County are declining (0.46% of ballots were rejected for that reason in 2024, down from 0.56% in 2020 and 0.86% in 2016), according to the county.
“Young people don’t have to sign things on a regular basis like those of us in other generations (I’m Gen X), so it’s an interesting conundrum,” Farmer said in an email. “We’re trying to get the word out to this age group in particular.”
Farmer said her 18-year-old daughter is a classic example of the issue. She registered to vote when she was 16 under the state’s future voter program, “but her signature today is practically unrecognizable from the one she gave at the driver licensing office. And it’s only been two years,” she said.
In 2019, Washington established the Future Voter Program, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote and automatically receive a ballot once they turn 18. In 2022, a new law made voters eligible to participate in the August primary if they will be 18 by the November general election, according to Pierce County.
“The trend is moving in the right direction,” Farmer said. “I’d love to see signature challenges become a non-issue.”
Learn more about how to register to vote, who your candidates will be and where your nearest ballot box is online at the Pierce County Elections website. The primary election is Aug. 5.
