Patent ID: 8490205

Claim:
A method of conducting a vote by mail election that protects the privacy of a registration signature of a registered voter, comprising: receiving a returned envelope including a completed ballot from the registered voter, the return envelope including a voter's signature; obtaining, by a processing device, the voter's signature from the returned envelope; obtaining, by the processing device from a first storage location, a distorted version of the registration signature that is associated with the registered voter, the registration signature being previously distorted by placing a mesh over an image of the registration signature and deforming the mesh to create the distorted version of the registration signature and a deformed mesh; obtaining, by the processing device from a second storage location that is different than the first storage location, the deformed mesh used to distort the registration signature for the registered voter based on an identification of the registered voter; converting, by the processing device, the distorted registration signature into a corresponding undistorted signature using the deformed mesh; comparing, by the processing device, the undistorted signature to the voter's signature obtained from the returned envelope to determine whether the undistorted signature matches the obtained voter's signature using a first signature matching software application; and determining, by the processing device, that the returned envelope and the completed ballot are authentic and should be counted in the election when the obtained voter's signature matches the undistorted signature.