There is only a small handful of voters whom we are even legally allowed to ask for identifications, such as first timers. We're lucky we are in a fairly civilized precinct where a lot of the voters do it without being asked.
Our only layer of security is signature matching. When we took over this job, I'd say that close to 10% of the signatures in our poll book were either missing or illegible. So if someone comes in and claims to be Mary Smith with such a signature, you can't legally challenge them unless you have personal knowledge and are willing to put up $10 to challenge. If her signature is simply illegible, she can legally refuse to sign an affidavit with a proper signature and vote. That's the weirdness of the law. However, if it is missing, we can insist that the affidavit be signed and submitted so the poll book can be updated for next time.
Fortunately, I'm blessed with a great team that gets these updates done, so we are seeing a lot fewer of them in the third year.
We also get a parade of people who insist they are eligible to vote in our precinct even if they aren't in the poll book. I have to pretend to be sympathetic even as I call the county election bureau who explains things to them and sends them packing.
It does make you wonder if so much of this type of stuff goes on in one of the better run precincts in one of the better run counties, how much of it gets swept under the rug unchallenged in those which are not.
I only saw one signature that did not match in all the years I did poll inspector. They used to have many of the old signature cards lined up so you could immediately see if the new one was different. Now you can only see one card. It seems that they are constantly chiseling away at voting rights, usually under the pretense of protecting them.
She didn’t object in the slightest, so I knew I was right.
I have many tales. Wrote a story for a local paper one time called “A Day at the Races” and got called by the Board of Elections. The paper had cut something essential and they thought they were going to chew me out. I told them I didn’t even report the worst thing: that a Democrat who went into the booth with me (that’s the law with someone who needs help with English) said to the voter, “You want to vote Democrat, right?” Honest truth. When they heard that, they said, “Have a nice day.”