The Obama Signing Machine Is Controversial

It’s no secret for the U.S. government: The president’s signature that some proudly frame on their wall might be the work of a machine. But when the automated counterpart is apparently going to enact legislation, the opposition claims that this is unconstitutional.

Last month (May 2011), as Barack Obama was in France when Congress passed the last minute extension of certain provisions of the Patriot Act and the Terrorism Act, he used the machine to sign thus into law. His critics denounced this as an unacceptable frivolity.

For decades, all American presidents have been assisted by an autopen, whose mechanical arms gripping a pen reproduce their signature.

“I’ve always heard [that] the autopen was the second best guarded thing in the White House after the president,” recalls Jack Shock, who used it as director in charge of presidential letters and messages to Bill Clinton.

The auto-signature of Ronald Reagan, for example, comes in 22 variations, such as “Ron” or “Dutch,” which gave him an air of authenticity, according to Stephen Koschal, a handwriting expert who published a guide to presidential autopen signatures two years ago.

The expert says he even spotted, during a visit to Vice President Dan Quayle’s office, a signed photograph by George Bush… clearly signed by the autopen. “The truth is that when he receives 10,000 letters a day, [the president] cannot do everything himself,” he underlined.

But with Barack Obama, it seems to be the first time that the signing machine was used to enact legislation. On June 17, 2011, 21 Republican congressmen sent a letter to the president demanding that he re-sign the law, this time in person, the Patriot Act. For them, the use of the autopen “appears contrary to the Constitution.”

This analysis was challenged by Mr. Obama’s advisers, based on a 29-page document written under George W. Bush. However, according to Ari Fleischer, former press secretary under the younger Bush, the White House had only considered at the time to use the autopen to sign minor pieces of legislation as a test case, “but in the end Bush just kept signing the parchment himself.”

Government officials in office are traditionally reluctant to talk about the signing machine and the Obama administration is no exception, but the president is at a loss to explain how he could sign the Patriot Act in such a short time since Europe.

The White House refuses to say how many autopens it holds, what models and where it keeps them. In Rockville, Maryland, Bob Olding, chief executive officer of Damilic, the main factory for signing machines, claims secrecy.

Those machines, which are now packed with electronics and stand on a table not only in the White House but also in many companies and organizations, cost between $2,000 and $10,000. They sign at about the same rate as the human hand and can sign up to about 500 signatures per hour.

Dwight Eisenhower was the first president (1953-1961) to use a machine to sign, said Stephen Koschal, who points out that many state leaders have let their secretaries sign letters and other documents.

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) used a polygraph to mimic his pen and reproduce what he wrote. “I could not … live without the Polygraph,” he enthused.

It is not clear, however, that Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush’s defense secretary, keeps a good memory of the signing machine: In 2004, he promised one would not be caught again after being singled out for using the autopen in letters of condolences to families of fallen soldiers.

As for the former president of the energy brokerage firm Enron, Kenneth Lay, he tried to argue that his signature on fraudulent documents came from a machine, but was nevertheless convicted of the bankruptcy of the group.

For Stephan Koschal, regardless of whether the automatic signature is in line with the Constitution or not, “I’d pay peanuts for it,” he says. “It’s not a real signature.”