Absentee Voting Killed in California

As someone who trusts neither party to play fair, imagine the voter fraud this will cause!

Sean: Imagine the additional participation in the political process and increased turnout. I appreciation your skepticism, but I think fraud is overstated--should be prosecuted when it occurs--but that the best antidote to what may be worrying you about the two parties--and others--is fuller participation by the public in voting.

If you trust democracy, this is a good thing and will bring about a more representative government.

Having voted absentee all these years because of my disability, I welcome this proposal to have California voters cast their ballots by mail. Just one question: How much will this measure cost us taxpayers?

Hi, Larry.

It actually may result in a cost savings because there will be a need for fewer folks working the polls and other stuff that really squeezes us on election day. whatever it is. it's not all that much compared with other government spending--and it's so important.

This is a clear example of "Lipstick on a pig", e.g. assuming that your ballot isn't disqualified for having the wrong zip code, erasures or corrections, insufficient postage or there's a dispute over the signature verification, anyone of which will result in your vote not being counted, your ballot will not be sent to your precinct but will instead be sent to a central tabulation place to be counted by a hackable computer behind locked doors. Later, an election official will come out and announce what the result was, another example of "Faith-based voting." Elections are not based on trust, nor should they be- we know who our enemies are, or at least we should- because they know we are the enemy, and we need to watch their every move.

Quite honestly I don't think greater participation in voting is the answer. Those who think, care and want to will always vote, those who don't care won't.

Lets face it why do I want people who care more about Britney Spear's undergarments or who got the most votes on American Idol deciding policy? If anything we should make people jump through more hoops in order to vote, IMO this would create a better electorate and often times people don't value something until they can't do it.

There are significant pros and cons for vote by mail vs. precinct voting. With precinct voting, you have privacy and no one knows how you vote. I think precinct voting was started to stop people from selling their votes. Vote by mail has the same issues - people can sell their vote and there is pressure to not fill out the ballot privately. I have heard anecdotal evidence of large churches having meetings and having everyone bring their ballots to fill out together. I have heard stories of the elderly in nursing homes having their ballots filled out for them.
A second issue is that one of the major checks for election integrity is exit polls and the exit polls become meaningless when so much of the vote is by mail.
At this point, only a few counties can tell you if you are registered and if your absentee ballot has been received. I'm not sure if they can tell you that the signature was accepted.
In Alameda County last year the RoV put up a website to check if you were registered and it your absentee ballot was received. It was wrong - a lot of the time. When calling up to check, we were told - oh yeah, that's wrong a lot - by a bored clerk. Yet, was anyone disenfranchised by checking the web site and not voting? We'll never know.
More and more signature verification is going to totally electronic means. This once again opens up the door for all kind of fraud - how many ethnic names can be thrown out by the electronic software. I don't think there is testing or regulation of this software.
If there is or will be in the future, hopefully it will better than we have for the machines.
VBM does solve a lot of problems at the precinct - like intimidation, long lines, paper ballot. But in CA now, with SoS Bowen, we all have paper ballots. There is no more problem of no paper and long lines waiting for machines that are broken in only "certain" neighborhoods.
So what problem are we really trying to solve? We give up one problem to take on a whole bunch more. The law of unintended consequences.
Does VBM really increase participation? If anyone has hard references for that, I would appreciate them.
I ask myself - would I send cash in the mail? No. Then why should I send my vote? I am permanent absentee. I fill it out and I deliver it to the precinct.

Steve is on the voting track of the future ! Vote By Mail is the most safe way of voting, should any discrepancies occur, the election dept. will have a procedure to validate the ballot, not to fear. This method is also the most democratic way of assuring disenfranchised voters being heard. And to those churches who round up their flock for voting, beware, they're treading on losing their tax-emempt status. Steve, good luck and get on every radio talk show in CA.

Steve:

I read about your recent headline grabbing stunt demanding $20 million for your super delegate vote (albeit it for a good cause but a stupid tactical move). Obama doesn't need your extortion effort to win. By the way, you claim to be a lawyer or a retired lawyer. The State Bar of California does not list you as an attorney. Are you or were you ever a licensed attorney? Good luck.

Ybarra also threatened voters that they'd end up in a concentration camp if they didn't vote for Obama. (See http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ for details.

Ybarra's a piece of shit. Fuck'm.

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