Ditch the Ink. Wet Signatures Strangle Democracy
- Bob Carlstrom
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Ballot initiatives and public petitions have long been the raw expression of popular will in American democracy. These tools give everyday citizens the power to propose laws, challenge entrenched interests, and compel action where legislatures refuse to lead. But in 2025, it is absurd that many states still insist on “wet” signatures, signatures executed in ink, on paper, in person, as the exclusive proof of a citizen’s support for an idea that might appear on a ballot. This insistence on archaic paperwork is an assault on civic engagement that privileges inconvenience over inclusion and fetishizes antiquated technology at the expense of the democratic spirit.
Consider what petition campaigns demand today. Volunteers stand on busy street corners in scorching sun or freezing cold, clutching stacks of paper. They coax busy commuters to pause for a moment, to read sometimes complicated language, to physically sign a page that will then be carried into county offices and reviewed with near-microscopic scrutiny. Supporters often discover later that their names were never counted because of a tiny error on the sheet, a misaligned date, or a circulator’s missed notary stamp. Whole pages of signatures can be invalidated because of a trivial formatting issue that had nothing to do with whether people genuinely supported the initiative. The person who cared enough to stop and sign may never even learn their support was thrown out.
In too many jurisdictions, elections officials and regulators have turned the act of supporting an initiative into a labyrinthine obstacle course. Even when people follow every instruction, the state can still reject signatures on grounds so arcane that only lawyers thrive in the weeds. Postal boxes may not count as addresses on petitions even though they are acceptable for other official uses. Entire pages can be discarded for a clerical error by someone gathering signatures, entirely unrelated to the intent of the individuals who signed.[...]
Keep reading the white paper - Click to download:
