Bill would require Washington high schools to teach kids to create a signature to help them vote

OLYMPIA – High schools could soon be required to offer coursework teaching students how to write a signature in cursive under a bill heard in the House Education Committee on Thursday.

The bill would add lessons on making official cursive signatures to current mandatory high school civics classes. It would also require lessons on what official signatures are used for in government and elections.

The proposal isn’t about crafting art or good penmanship. It’s focused on preparing teens to vote. In Washington’s vote-by-mail system, a signature is required and if it differs from the signature on file, the ballot gets rejected. Studies have shown that younger voters tend to get their signature rejected more often because they haven’t solidified a regular signature.

In addition, the Secretary of State’s Office would have to include in its odd-year voter survey mismatched signatures by age group.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. April Connors, R-Kennewick, who said her own observations on youth using cursive were concerning.

“It’s not necessarily a cursive bill, but a lot of us sign our signatures in cursive,” she said. “It’s hard because the kids aren’t learning.”

She argued the bill would decrease the number of ballots getting challenged during elections by young voters.

“You just have to have a signature that’s repeatable,” she said. “If we could get kids to actually just get a repeatable signature as we move forward, I think that would be ideal.”

Less than 1 % of ballots in Spokane County were challenged in 2024, according to the secretary of state’s office. Of those, a vast majority were due to unmatched signatures.

Across the state in 2024, 64% of ballots rejected were due to mismatch signatures.

“I definitely see the value of increasing participation in our democratic system. And that is of most value to me, even though I love cursive,” said Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla.

Testifying in support of the bill was Benton County Auditor Brenda Chilton. She noted most teens can register to vote when getting a driver’s licenses at 16, but the signature tends to change when they actually begin to vote at age 18.

“We see a significant number of signature challenges among younger voters,” she said. “Many of these voters have never been taught to develop a legible repeatable signature.”

The bill was supported by Washington’s county auditor’s association and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.

“Secretary of state’s office have been very supportive,” Connors said. “One of the folks that work with the secretary actually said that the secretary had this problem with his own children as well.”

The bill is scheduled to be voted on in committee Tuesday.