On November 2, the Eleventh Circuit refused to disturb the earlier ruling of a U.S. District Court, concerning signatures on absentee ballot applications, and returned absentee ballots. Georgia Muslin Voter Project v Kemp, 18-14502. The case involved situations in which election officials receive either a request for an absentee ballot, or a completed mail ballot, and they feel the signature on the envelope doesn’t match the signature on the voter registration form. The U.S. District Court had ruled that when the election official feels the signatures don’t match, the official must promptly notify the voter and give the voter a chance to prove the signatures are from the same person.

The three judges are Gerald Tjoflat, a Ford appointee; Jill Pryor, an Obama appointee; and Keith C. Newsom, a Trump appointee. The vote was 2-1. The court order does not say how each judge voted. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

This case should not be confused with the Georgia case over voters whose voter registration applications have a tiny mismatch with information about that applicant in other state databases, such as the Drivers License registry.