ACLU sues California over 45,000 ballots thrown out in 2016

The American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday that it will sue California over a state law that allowed election officials to throw out nearly 45,000 ballots in the 2016 election. 

“In last year’s election, 45,000 ballots were thrown out by California elections officials,” the civil liberties group said in a tweet. “We’re suing.” 

The law at the center of the lawsuit allows officials to throw out mail-in ballots with signatures that do not match the signatures on file. The ACLU said in a statement that the law disproportionately impacts Latino and Asian-American voters. 

“People should not be denied their right to vote because a government official doesn’t like their penmanship, but that’s exactly what is happening in California,” said senior ACLU of Northern California attorney Michael Risher in the statement.

“One disenfranchised voter would be too many, and we’re seeing tens of thousands of wrongly rejected ballots every election cycle in California alone,” he said. 

ACLU staff attorney Julie Ebenstein said the large number of votes thrown out was an unconstitutional “disenfranchisement of eligible California voters.”