absentee ballot help needed.

[rosesareredroses]

hi. i just received my ballot. i have never voted this way before. in fact, i have only voted once in '92 when i was 18. i apologize for any silly questions.

1) can i leave some categories blank or do i have to have vote in each to have the ballot counted?
2) i thought i read something on here about if you fill in all democrats your president vote wouldn't count (i could be making this up and crazily confused what i read!)
3) is it better to get it sent in right away or closer to nov 4?
4) what happens to these ballots once sent in? can't they magically disappear (paranoia!)

i am eager to send in my obama/biden vote in the state of georgia!!

[grannie4peace]

1. if you read #2 that is wrong there shouldn't be any reason to not vote straight dem

[EFerrari]

5. Not quite. In some venues, it seems that voting a straight Dem ticket

can make you a candidate to get your vote flipped. But, iirc, that was on touchscreens. I don't recall hearing of a case where it happened with absentee ballots.

The place to ask that question is in the Election Reform forum. Posters there might have this information more fresh in mind.

[napi21]

2. I live in Ga. and we filled out and mailed out absentee ballots

last week.

I don't really know the answer to your first question. I made sure we voted for some candidate in every catagory. You really SHOULD be able to leave some blank, but I can't forget the idiots in Fl. claiming a ballot was invalid because it wasn't complete, so I wasn't about to take any chances.

It's NOT TRUE about the voting for all Dems.

We mailed our right away because we're not going to change out mind between now and election day. That's the only think I've heard that would make you not want to mail their ballot now. If something happens between now and election day, you can't change your vote.

I can tell you that as the absentee ballots come into the office, the signature on the outside envelope is validated, and the ballot is passed onto one of the clerks to be entered into a voting machine on their desk. I saw this happening while we were waiting in line to vote in 2004. IMO, I think it's better to mail your ballot now because if you wait until the last minute, it will become part of a deluge of ballots. People make mistakes when they are rushed. I don't THINK they have any validation process to check for keying errors, so I would send it early to take advantage of a slower time.

[sandyd921]

3. Here's my responses

1. You can leave offices or ballot initiatives blank if you don't know enough about the issues or candidates. This will not invalidate your ballot.

2. You can vote straight Dem (or straight repuke for that matter) and it will not invalidate your vote for president! There is no such rule anywhere in the US (and there better not be)! In fact I encourage you to vote a straight Democratic ticket! I hear there's a possibility that in GA Dems will take the senate race! Obama will need all the help he can get from a Democratic house and senate to get his agenda through.

3. I would take it now. I have heard that in most parts of the US, it is best to personally take your ballot to whoever processes it in your state and locality (your local elections official) rather than mail it. In my state, I take my ballot to the clerk's office at my local City Hall. Call City Hall or the town office in your town or city. I'm sure they'll be able to help you.

4. Hard to say whether you're better off leaving it to Diebold (if that's what you have in GA) or going with a paper ballot that can be "misplaced" but I generally favor the paper ballot over the possibility of electronic tampering.

[rosesareredroses]

4. thank you all for

the great information.
i'm going to fill it out and send it in on tuesday


hooray!