If your John Hancock looks more like a John Adams when you sign your ballot, your vote could end up being discarded instead of counted.

Since Colorado began mail-in ballots elections in 2013, signatures are what election judges use to verify the identity of the voter.

“Signature verification plays an important role in our elections because it ensures that only those individuals eligible to vote have their vote counted,” reads the state’s Signature Verification Guide for election judges.

The average rejection rate has decreased statewide during recent elections, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

In the 2016 presidential election, the state reported a signature discrepancy rejection rate of 0.61%. That fell to 0.52% in the 2018 general election.

It’s still a large amount — some 13,000 ballots in 2018, given that more than 2.5 million Colorado residents voted, according to the secretary of state’s 2018 election report.

This year’s primary races were a mixed bag — 0.66% average signature rejection in the presidential primary and 0.59% in the state primary.

The problem disproportionally affects younger voters, who do not have as many signatures on file or have “evolving” signatures, the Secretary of State’s Office says.

In 2018, ballots of 1.8% of voters aged 18-19 were rejected statewide.

While scribbling one’s name on the ballot envelope may take just a few seconds, the process to determine if the person who signed the ballot is in fact the registered voter who received it is more complex.

Under state law, one election judge first reviews a signature.

Election judges are trained to study whether signatures appear spontaneous or laboriously copied, for instance. They also look for the size of letters, loops, curls, strokes, slanted vs. straight, cursive vs. print, spacing, spelling and punctuation, according to the judges’ manual.

If the first judge rejects a signature, the decision goes to a team of two judges of different political affiliations for review.

If those judges agree there’s a discrepancy in the signature, the ballot gets rejected.

If just one of the judges believes the signature is really that of the voter, the ballot is accepted. Electronic verification machines also may be used, by law.

Voters with a signature that doesn’t match what’s on file, or who submit a ballot with a missing signature or a missing voter identification, are sent a “cure” letter within three days of the rejection about how they can correct the problem.

The notification includes instructions on how they can return the signed paper affidavit with a photocopy of an acceptable form of identification to their county election office.

New technology introduced in recent weeks by the Secretary of State’s Office now enables voters to correct signature and identification issues electronically, using a smartphone.

Voters who are notified of a signature discrepancy can text “Colorado” to 2VOTE (28638) and click on the link they receive.

They enter their voter identification number listed on the rejection notice, affirm they returned a ballot for the election, sign the affidavit on their phone, take a photo of an accepted form of identification and select “submit.”

The deadline to do so is midnight on Nov. 12. Valid verifications received before then means their ballot will be counted.

Voters must sign their ballot envelopes, whether they are returned by mail or placed in a designated drop box.

During both the 2016 and 2018 elections, signatures of unaffiliated voters were nearly twice as likely as those from the major party voters to be rejected, the Secretary of State’s Office says.

Election officials attribute that the younger age of unaffiliated voters and that unaffiliated voters tend to have participated in fewer elections, thus have fewer signatures on file.

Across both elections, Republican signatures were the least likely to be rejected, followed closely by Democrats’ signatures.

And women were slightly less likely to be rejected than men for signature verification problems, at a rate of 0.45% compared to 0.65%.