The county solicitor and at least two organizations disagree on the identification requirement for those voting or dropping off their completed ballot at the county elections bureau.

The county Democratic Committee’s Carol McCarthy, attorney for the committee, attended Wednesday’s county commissioners meeting to assert that the county elections bureau is not a polling place, so voters should not be required to present their identification when dropping off their ballot or filling out a ballot at the bureau.

“That’s contrary to law,” McCarthy said.

She said the Democratic Committee asked the county to cease and desist, but were refused. And the American Civil Liberties Union made a similar request to the county, arguing that the county’s identification requirement was illegal.

McCarthy also objected to the practice of Aaron Sheasley, county Bureau of Elections director, comparing signatures on completed ballots received in the mail with the voter’s signature on file at the bureau.

Wil White, county solicitor, told McCarthy both her accusations are incorrect.

White said he has spoken with the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, the American Civil Liberties and others regarding requiring identification from voters when they drop off or submit ballots.

He said no one has presented him with a case saying not to check ID.

“If somebody says so, we will,” White said.

But Sara Rose, an ACLU senior staff attorney, said they told White their requirement is illegal. She also said she believes Butler County is the only county in the state with this requirement.

“The commissioners are the ones insisting on identification. We think that’s very problematic,” Rose said. “Certainly they could ask, ‘Is this your ballot?’ or if someone is trying to drop off more than one, that’s not permitted. But to ask every voter for an identification, in our perspective they’re in violation of state law.”

Rose said that there’s nothing in the state’s law that allows the county to verify signatures, but White said there is no law against the move.

“We believe we have an obligation to confirm their identity,” White said. “We don’t want to be rebels here; we want to do what we’re required to do.”

He also contended that federal law dictates that if a person is presenting at a polling location for the first time, they have to present proof of their identity and since this is a federal election, White said they are deferring to federal law. But Rose argued that the setup in the county’s Government Center is a drop off center, not a polling place.

Rose said that if anyone is having trouble submitting their mail-in ballot or any other voting issue, they can call the ACLU’s hot line at 866-OUR-VOTE.

White noted that the identification doesn’t have to be a driver’s license; it just needs to be some kind of photo-identification that verifies the voter’s identity. He said that there is also an option for people to swear that their identity is true before one of the judges in the Government Building, although nobody has taken that option yet.

White said that the county isn’t throwing out votes if people don’t present identification and insist on their ballot being submitted. Instead, they are noting an identification wasn’t presented for the ballot, so that the state’s pre-canvassing board can be aware of it when counting votes.

“We’re not the judges, so to speak,” White said. “We’re a receptacle office. We take everything in and we don’t decide what gets thrown out.”

Regarding comparing signatures on ballot envelopes to the version on file at the elections bureau, White said the practice is allowable though the state Supreme Court ruled that ballots cannot be thrown out based on signature comparisons.

“Until the application process has run out, we are going to follow what we believe to be the statutory,” White said.

He said he believes McCarthy’s information is based on gossip or hearsay and is incorrect.

“We disagree on the legal analysis,” McCarthy said.

Sheasley said that ballots would only be flagged as being a possible problem if the signature completely mismatched the signature on the voter’s registration form.

And so far, he said, they have only spotted about three or so that were a complete mismatch. Even then, Sheasley wouldn’t discard the ballot. Instead, he said, they would try to reach out to the voter to verify their identity.

“I’d prefer to not disqualify any,” Sheasley said. “But we have to.”

But Rose wondered what if they can’t reach the voter in time.

“I think it’s still problematic because there’s nothing in the law that allows them to verify signatures,” she said. “If they’re not counting it due to signature mismatch, that’s a violation of the law.”

But White contends that they aren’t throwing those votes out. “If they look weird, we still process, but it goes into a special bundle and the board of elections will review,” White said. “I want to be clear; we don’t count ballots.”