Voting by Mail: Ending Long Lines & Hanging Chads

[kpete]

Voting by Mail: Ending Long Lines & Hanging Chads
By Nathan Newman | bio


In a Nation article right after the 2004 election, scholar James Galbraith denounced the long lines in Ohio that prevented so many people from voting. "It is an injustice, an outrage and a scandal--a crime, really--that American citizens should have to wait for hours in the November rain in order to exercise the simple right to vote."

Those rainy Ohio lines in 2004 joined the hanging chads of 2000 as symbols of dysfunction in our voting process. The results of both have been explosive political battles across the country over which voting machines and procedures will protect people's right to vote, yet work efficiently as tens of millions of people converge on understaffed polling stations on election day.

But there is an alternative: voting by mail – which has delivered higher voter turnout with less expense than traditional polling booths in states and local jurisdictions that have used it in recent years.

much more at:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/30064

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Ending also

... every last shred of oversight found in the elections process.

Frankly, I would rather stand in one line to pick up my ballot, another line to fill it out and a third line to turn it in. There is no chance that the blank ballot will get lost in the mail or stolen out of my mail box and no chance that the completed ballot will be lost in the mail or stolen out of mail box.

Why are so many people willing to jump on the bandwagon of making it easier to commit election fraud?

[Kolesar]

2. Thieves can raid apartment building mailboxes and net dozens of ballots

I read the pros and cons of the Oregon vote-by-mail proposal.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. I have seen reports of buying blank ballots from registered non-voters

Worse, getting addicts to register as mail-in voters and then buying their ballots for drugs. If you were a heroin addict or had a $500 a day coke habit, would you go to the media or police about such a set-up? No need to show up at the polls, no chance that the person will go in and vote contrary to expectations; just sign the blank ballot and trade it in.

With election fraud that easy, who needs Diebold?

[Amaryllis]

4. If they steal them, they can't use them. You have not read the article.

The Oregon system makes it impossible to use someone else's ballot.

"In fact, the Oregon system is arguably far more secure from fraud, since rather than having voters check in through largely decentralized polling places, election officials counting mail in ballots have access to a full computerized registry of digitized signatures by registered voters that they can cross-check against voters’ signatures on ballot envelopes."

And just how many theives do you think are motivated to commit a felony to steal a few ballots?

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. So election thieves get signed ballots

Blackmail drug addicts to register as voters, then trade in a blank, signed ballot for drugs or "protection." If you were a heroin addict, pot smoker or meth user, would you go to the police if your supplier offered you such a discount? And that is just one of many possible groups open to exploitation.

There have been reliable reports for years of this kind of voter fraud occuring with mail-in ballots. Now it is going to occur on an unprecedentedly vaster scale. Who the hell needs Diebold anymore when election fraud will be this easy?

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. There's no comparison. It would be small potatoes compared to

switching the result of the whole election by a few key-strokes.

Your scenario is very labor-intensive and relatively minuscule in its potential scope. Not that I'm convinced about postal ballots. I must read the article. But it would be a sad day if Americans were denied the adult system of voting, in all probability, substantially enjoyed by every other country in the world: paper ballots.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Just read it. Sounds great. Better than polling centers, etc. , at

least in the US, where elections seem to have become virtual civil wars.

[Amaryllis]

10. self deleted; meant to post in another place

[Amaryllis]

11. You clearly did not read the artilce referenced in the original post.

Why do you assume there is no oversight in the OR system? The OR system has outstanding checks and balances and chain of custody. Stolen ballots cannot be used because of the signature verification process (see article linked in original post). And if you dont receive your ballot, you call BOE and they send another, since the signature verification process makes it impossible for anyone to vote twice. And you can call BOE and make sure your ballot has been received. They enter in the computer when they scan the signature when the ballot is received before they take the ballot out of the signed envelope (ballot is left in secrecy envelope until election day).

REad the article. It explains all this.

It's all about checks and balances and chain of custody; if you have a corrupt environment where they dont have this, NO system is secure.

BTW you can take your ballot to BOE if you dont trust the mail. You dont HAVE to mail it. There are also secured boxes at each library where you can drop them.

Would you really rather trust a Diebold machine?

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. And meanwhile...

...Pastor Dan has everyone bring their ballots to church, because after Bible study, there's going to be a voting party.

Of course, your vote is still secret.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Excellent point

And we all know that Jesus wants you vote with the GOP on every single issue and candiate, otherwise you are going to Hell.