Distrust Spurs Absentee Voting

[Wilms]

Actually what "defies all logic and reason" is the assumption by some absentee proponents that an absentee vote will be counted, counted accurately, and hand-counted, at that. Who said?

Distrust Spurs Absentee Voting

By: The Californian - Commentary:

June 20, 2006

There is a growing trend in this country toward voting by absentee ballot.

Year after year, the percentage of the electorate choosing to vote by this method increases. In the June 6 primary election in Riverside County, the birthplace of electronic voting, 49 percent of those voting used an absentee ballot.

There is little question that a large percentage of these voters have selected to do so due to concern about the accuracy of electronic voting. No election passes without the horror stories of machine failures from touchscreen anomalies to machines recording more votes than registered voters using them.

There is another alternative for those not trusting the touchscreens. Despite being poorly publicized, paper ballots were available to those visiting their polling places in Riverside County.

snip

How were their votes counted? In an act of disrespect that defies all logic and reason, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore decided that she would cast their ballots into the very machines they chose to avoid instead of tallying them by hand.

snip

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06/21/opinion/commentary/20_51_146_20_06.txt

[Einsteinia]

1. The price for the increased accessibility

simply isn't worth it. Not only can Diebold's "Vote Remote" signature matching device be callibrated up or down be turned into a vote spoilage device, and the even Oregon's best of class system has never been audited to see if it works as well as they think, but also no matter what State's interpretation of this concept is used, they ALL depend on the U.S. Post Office.

Here's a nice little compendium with a subjective rankings of their relative pros and cons.

http://www.califelectprotect.net/No_to_Mail.pdf

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. One note about the Oregon system

yes, I agree that the machines need to be automatically audited every for every election.

The post office thing, I always drop mine off at the county/city office or the library. I don't think very many people actually send them back by mail. It sure is nice getting them in the mail though. :)

[applegrove]

3. Hopefully. That will help.

[livvy]

4. Some drawbacks to voting absentee....

From Palast "Armed Madhouse..."
"...In 2004, from official reports, we can calculate that half a million (526,426) absentee ballots were received but not counted. And that's just the ones they acknowledged receiving." pg 238

"Doing a bit of arithmetic on the precinct-by-precinct reports discloses that, believe it or not, in strong Kerry precincts, voters were 256% more likely to have their absentee ballots tossed out than voters in Bush-majority precincts. Behind this statistic is Jim Crow: the rejection of Black voter absentee ballots ran 316% higher than rejections of white voters' ballots." pg 238

Federal law doesn't protect absentee ballots. You do not have to be notified that your ballot was received and counted. In the event there is a "problem" with your ballot, ie your signature, address, #2 pencil, pen, etc., you will not be notified and given a chance to correct the "error".
Your zip code can be a good indicator of your voting choices. Who is to say your ballot will be counted?

He gives an example from San Diego in 2004 where the Dem candidate for mayor lost by only 2,108 votes. She was a write-in candidate, and although absentee ballot voters had clearly written her name in the space, they neglected to check the box by her name. This resulted in 5,551 absentee ballots being tossed.