On the first question, signature documents can be scanned and uploaded electronically and submitted through our portal.
With respect to the second question, the answer is no. We don't go, for example, door to door. Our returning officers are not experts at comparing signatures.
Very often, nomination papers are filed at the last hour, if not the last minute. The returning officer has 48 hours to confirm and usually likes to inform the candidate if there's a problem with one of the signatures or if there's a signature missing. Then they have to move very quickly to make sure that these are names of people who are in the electoral districts. That's the verification process that takes place.
Obviously, there may be situations where it's apparent that it's the same signature across the board. If it's so apparent, that would be flagged, but that is not the same thing as truly having a signature verification process for the nominations.