In Indiana, your ballot can be rejected and you would never know it, according to a new federal lawsuit.

The suit is challenging the constitutionality of an Indiana law that allows election officials to discard absentee ballots if they don't think the signature on the envelope matches other signatures on file with the county.

The practice resulted in the rejection of "several hundred and possibly more than a thousand mail-in absentee ballots" submitted in 2018, according to the lawsuit.

And because Indiana law does not require election officials to notify those voters, they have no way of knowing their vote wasn't counted and no way to challenge the decision, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of government accountability group Common Cause Indiana and four voters in St. Joseph County whose ballots were not counted because of questions about their signature.

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Three of those voters are elderly and one of them, 69-year-old Mary J. Frederick, has Parkinson's disease.

"Because of her Parkinson’s, her signature becomes increasingly illegible as the day goes on, although her signature has never been questioned by her bank or anyone else," the lawsuit says.

If she had known election officials were questioning her signature, she would have validated it, the lawsuit says.

Frederick and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit only found out their ballots were rejected when they were contacted by Common Cause, which had sought copies of ballot envelopes containing ballots that were rejected based on signature mismatch.

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Frederick's case highlights how the Indiana law can be especially problematic for people who are elderly and disabled or have limited English language skills. Signature variations are more likely for those people, the lawsuit argues.

The lawsuit names Secretary of State Connie Lawson, the St. Joseph County Election Board and the three members of the board as defendants.

A spokeswoman for Lawson, the state's top election official, said the office does not comment on pending litigation. St. Joseph County Clerk Rita Glenn, a member of the election board, said the board would not comment because it had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn said in an emailed statement that the practice has stripped too many Hoosiers of their voice in government.

“This system is deeply flawed and we trust the court will side with the voters who were wrongly and unknowingly disenfranchised and end this unconstitutional and undemocratic system once and for all," she said.

Common Cause and its attorney, William Groth, sought records about signature mismatches from six counties prior to filing the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the number of ballots rejected in each of those counties because of perceived signature mismatches were:

Hamilton County: 45

St. Joseph County: 39

Elkhart County: 13

Madison County: 13

Boone County: 0

Porter County: 0

The lawsuit emphasizes that Indiana lacks any rules or standards to determine whether a signature is genuine and that county election officials receive no training in handwriting analysis.

"Given the lack of standards or expertise of those making the decisions I’m reasonably sure the rates of rejection from county to county are wildly inconsistent," Groth said.

Groth and his clients are seeking an injunction to prevent enforcement of the current law. The case has been assigned to Judge Sarah Barker.

Such lawsuits have been successful in other states, Groth said. In neighboring Illinois, for example, the suit was resolved when lawmakers required notice to voters whose signatures were being questioned.

Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or tony.cook@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @IndyStarTony.

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