§ 19:31-21 — Use of signature copy registers on election day.

19:31-21. A person whose name appears in the signature copy register and who upon applying for a ballot or voting authority shall have given the information and signed the signature comparison record as provided in this Title and whose signature in the signature comparison record shall have been compared by a member of the district board and in the presence and view of the challengers with the signature of the applicant as recorded in the register shall be eligible to receive a ballot or voting authority unless it be shown to the satisfaction of a majority of the members of the district board that he is not entitled to vote in the district or has otherwise become disqualified. No person shall be required to sign the signature comparison record as a means of identification if he shall have been unable to write his name when he registered, or if, having been able to write his name when registered, he subsequently shall have lost his sight or lost the hand with which he was accustomed to write or shall by reason of disease or accident be unable to write his name when he applies to vote, but each such person shall establish his identity in the manner provided in this Title. In addition to signing the signature comparison record and after the comparison of the signature with the signature in the register, a person offering to vote at the primary election for the general election, as the case may be, shall announce his name and the party primary in which he wishes to vote. After a person has voted the member of the district board having charge of the signature copy registers shall place the number of the person's ballot in the proper column on the record of voting form of such person, which number shall constitute a record that the person has voted. In the case of the primary election for the general election such member of the district board shall also place in the proper column on the record of voting form the first three letters of the name of the political party whose primary ballot such person has voted. In the event that the duplicate permanent registration form of any person cannot be found in the signature copy register at the time he applies for a ballot or voting authority, a member of the district board shall promptly ascertain from the commissioner or a duly authorized clerk if such person is permanently registered. Upon information that such is the fact, such member of the district board shall require the person applying for a ballot or voting authority to obtain an order from the commissioner authorizing him to receive a ballot or voting authority. The commissioner shall specially authorize and deputize clerks to issue such orders in municipalities within his county. The commissioner or his clerk shall require the voter to sign his name upon such order for the purpose of signature comparison. The district board shall require the voter to again sign his name on said order, in the presence of the board, and if the signatures compare, to permit him to vote. At primary elections the commissioner or his duly authorized clerk shall endorse on the order the political party whose ballot such person voted at the last preceding primary election. The order shall be returned to the commissioner at the same time and along with the signature copy registers. amended 1945, c.77; 2005, c.136, s.45; 2011, c.134, s.42.