Under Utah law, electronic signatures used to execute petitions to nominate independent political candidates are valid, the Utah Supreme Court ruled. The court first looked to the general provisions of the Utah Code, which broadly defines a "signature" as including a “name, mark, or sign written with the intent to authenticate any instrument or writing,” and further specifies that a "writing" includes “printing,” “handwriting,” and “information stored in an electronic or other medium if the information is retrievable in a perceivable format.” The court also concluded that the Utah enactment of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act applies to the Utah Election Code, and noted that the UETA provides that “[i]f a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the law.”
Anderson v. Bell, 2010 UT 47 (Utah June 22, 2010) DownloadPDF
