NYT chart that could be important: Absentee Voting Laws in Swing States

[DeepModem Mom]

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2004/09/12/politics/campaign/20040913_VOTE_CHART.html

And link to the accompanying page-one article, "Absentee Votes Worry Officials as Nov. 2 Nears:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/politics/campaign/13vote.html

FRAUD
Absentee Votes Worry Officials as Nov. 2 Nears
By MICHAEL MOSS

Published: September 13, 2004

As both major political parties intensify their efforts to promote absentee balloting as a way to lock up votes in the presidential race, election officials say they are struggling to cope with coercive tactics and fraudulent vote-gathering involving absentee ballots that have undermined local races across the country.

Some of those officials say they are worried that the brashness of the schemes and the extent to which critical swing states have allowed party operatives to involve themselves in absentee voting - from handling ballot applications to helping voters fill out their ballots - could taint the general election in November.

In the four years since the last presidential election, prosecutors have brought criminal cases in at least 15 states for fraud in absentee voting. One case resulted in the conviction of a voting-rights activist this year for forging absentee ballots in a Wisconsin county race. In another case, a Republican election worker in Ohio was charged with switching the votes of nursing-home residents in the 2000 presidential race. And last year in Michigan, three city council members pleaded guilty in a vote-tampering case that included forged signatures and ballots altered by white-out.

The increasing popularity of absentee voting is reshaping how and when the country votes. Since the last presidential election, a growing number of election officials and party operatives have been promoting absentee balloting as a way to make it easier for people to vote and alleviate the crush of Election Day. At least 26 states now let residents cast absentee ballots without needing the traditional excuse of not being able to make it to polling places. That is six more states than allowed the practice in 2000.

As a result, as many as one in four Americans are expected to vote by absentee ballot in the presidential race, a process that begins today, nearly two months before Election Day, as North Carolina becomes the first state to distribute ballots....

[kid a]

1. good article - kick

[DebJ]

2. I hate the idea of absentee ballots..but just got good news

here in Pa, thanks to a DU'er who gave me a link (I was too busy registering voters all day Sunday and half day Saturday to look it up). Apparently, college students in PA can register with their dorms as residence (they just obviously can't be registered at home and at college).

My husband found 15 unregistered college students in just 30 minutes and signed them up.
Seems to me this
a)avoids absentee ballot problems
b)makes it more likely they will vote...polling location nearby, and they can make a party of it, voting with friends and then watching the results.

There was a phone number listed on the state website where you can call to make sure no information was changed. I'm calling that today to play it safe.
Then.....we will hit the college dorms big time. Two colleges around here. YEEEEHAAAH!

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Good job, DebJ! nt