diff --git a/ecdsa.go b/ecdsa.go
index f9773812..f62625ae 100644
--- a/ecdsa.go
+++ b/ecdsa.go
@@ -128,18 +128,12 @@ func (m *SigningMethodECDSA) Sign(signingString string, key interface{}) (string
 			keyBytes += 1
 		}
 
-		// We serialize the outpus (r and s) into big-endian byte arrays and pad
+		// We serialize the outputs (r and s) into big-endian byte arrays and pad
 		// them with zeros on the left to make sure the sizes work out. Both arrays
 		// must be keyBytes long, and the output must be 2*keyBytes long.
-		rBytes := r.Bytes()
-		rBytesPadded := make([]byte, keyBytes)
-		copy(rBytesPadded[keyBytes-len(rBytes):], rBytes)
-
-		sBytes := s.Bytes()
-		sBytesPadded := make([]byte, keyBytes)
-		copy(sBytesPadded[keyBytes-len(sBytes):], sBytes)
-
-		out := append(rBytesPadded, sBytesPadded...)
+		out := make([]byte, 2*keyBytes)
+		r.FillBytes(out[0:keyBytes])
+		s.FillBytes(out[keyBytes:])
 
 		return EncodeSegment(out), nil
 	} else {
diff --git a/ecdsa_test.go b/ecdsa_test.go
index 753047b1..f6b86e21 100644
--- a/ecdsa_test.go
+++ b/ecdsa_test.go
@@ -87,14 +87,60 @@ func TestECDSASign(t *testing.T) {
 
 		if data.valid {
 			parts := strings.Split(data.tokenString, ".")
+			toSign := strings.Join(parts[0:2], ".")
 			method := jwt.GetSigningMethod(data.alg)
-			sig, err := method.Sign(strings.Join(parts[0:2], "."), ecdsaKey)
+			sig, err := method.Sign(toSign, ecdsaKey)
+
 			if err != nil {
 				t.Errorf("[%v] Error signing token: %v", data.name, err)
 			}
 			if sig == parts[2] {
 				t.Errorf("[%v] Identical signatures\nbefore:\n%v\nafter:\n%v", data.name, parts[2], sig)
 			}
+
+			err = method.Verify(toSign, sig, ecdsaKey.Public())
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Errorf("[%v] Sign produced an invalid signature: %v", data.name, err)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func BenchmarkECDSASigning(b *testing.B) {
+	for _, data := range ecdsaTestData {
+		key, _ := ioutil.ReadFile(data.keys["private"])
+
+		ecdsaKey, err := jwt.ParseECPrivateKeyFromPEM(key)
+		if err != nil {
+			b.Fatalf("Unable to parse ECDSA private key: %v", err)
 		}
+
+		method := jwt.GetSigningMethod(data.alg)
+
+		b.Run(data.name, func(b *testing.B) {
+			benchmarkSigning(b, method, ecdsaKey)
+		})
+
+		// Directly call method.Sign without the decoration of *Token.
+		b.Run(data.name+"/sign-only", func(b *testing.B) {
+			if !data.valid {
+				b.Skipf("Skipping because data is not valid")
+			}
+
+			parts := strings.Split(data.tokenString, ".")
+			toSign := strings.Join(parts[0:2], ".")
+
+			b.ReportAllocs()
+			b.ResetTimer()
+			for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+				sig, err := method.Sign(toSign, ecdsaKey)
+				if err != nil {
+					b.Fatalf("[%v] Error signing token: %v", data.name, err)
+				}
+				if sig == parts[2] {
+					b.Fatalf("[%v] Identical signatures\nbefore:\n%v\nafter:\n%v", data.name, parts[2], sig)
+				}
+			}
+		})
 	}
 }
diff --git a/parser_test.go b/parser_test.go
index 39077978..d5813d96 100644
--- a/parser_test.go
+++ b/parser_test.go
@@ -290,6 +290,8 @@ func TestParser_ParseUnverified(t *testing.T) {
 // Helper method for benchmarking various methods
 func benchmarkSigning(b *testing.B, method jwt.SigningMethod, key interface{}) {
 	t := jwt.New(method)
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	b.ResetTimer()
 	b.RunParallel(func(pb *testing.PB) {
 		for pb.Next() {
 			if _, err := t.SignedString(key); err != nil {
diff --git a/token.go b/token.go
index d637e086..16c7c899 100644
--- a/token.go
+++ b/token.go
@@ -95,14 +95,10 @@ func ParseWithClaims(tokenString string, claims Claims, keyFunc Keyfunc) (*Token
 
 // Encode JWT specific base64url encoding with padding stripped
 func EncodeSegment(seg []byte) string {
-	return strings.TrimRight(base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString(seg), "=")
+	return base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(seg)
 }
 
 // Decode JWT specific base64url encoding with padding stripped
 func DecodeSegment(seg string) ([]byte, error) {
-	if l := len(seg) % 4; l > 0 {
-		seg += strings.Repeat("=", 4-l)
-	}
-
-	return base64.URLEncoding.DecodeString(seg)
+	return base64.RawURLEncoding.DecodeString(seg)
 }