On Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:15:54 -0700, The Horny Goat <
lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>
In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big
building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I
have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With
DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
it to the US Mail.
>
I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election
official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.
>
The only problems I have had with the USPS and elections is when they
decide that distributing the Voter Pamphlets is optional. It's not.
And, IIRC, they get /paid/ to do it.
>
Around here, the local equivalent is the single document related to
the election you are allowed to bring into the voting station. They
don't check to see if you have put check marks next to candidates'
names.
>
The last election we had was during the peak of the pandemic where the
main change was that instead of folding your ballot and handing it to
the poll clerk who popped it into the box; during the pandemic the
poll clerk was behind a plexiglass shield and you were required to
fold your ballot and when the clerk said OK (meaning you'd folded it
properly) stuck it through the slot of the box which was chained to
the table but was outside the plexiglass screen.
>
As always we lined up to vote and the line was longer than usual
though mostly because we were standing 6-10 feet apart in the line.
>
Mail in, mail back, get email confirming receipt, get email confirming
will be counted (ie, signature passed inspection). A simple process.
>
Republicans hate it because it lets just anyone (who qualifies) vote.
They think only people who vote Republican should be allowed to vote.
>
I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)
That's the sort of excuse Republicans use, but the fact is that
citizenship (and other qualifiers) are checked when the voter
/registers/, the list is updated for change of address and things like
becoming a felon, the ballot is mailed to the address-of-record and
cannot be forwarded; the ballot is mailed to the voter specifically
and that is who had better be signing the envelope; and the signature
is checked when the ballot is received. The real reason is that given
above.
And they know it works because, in States where both traditional
voting and mail voting occur, it is common for the initial returns to
favor the Republicans and then the vast deluge of mailed-in ballots
are counted and, sometimes, things change drastically.
But, just as it never occurred to them that reversing Roe v Wade might
cost them white female suburban votes, so it also never occurs to them
that a lot of their voters are older and so more likely to vote by
mail in States where in-person voting is the norm. So the harder they
make it to vote by mail, the more of their own voters they impede.
The cases of actual voter fraud are very few and mostly consist of
someone voting a deceased housemate's ballot. Although both 2016 and
2020 produced at least one MAGA voter who voted twice, in one case
because Trump had convinced her that her vote wouldn't be counted.
There was, of course, one Congressional District back East in 20 or 24
(I forget which) where the fraud perpetrated by a /Republican/
political operative was deemed so bad that the entire election, from
Primary to the one that counted, had to be redone. I'm not going to
say that this is the first (and so only) time this has happened, but
it is not something that happens very often.
On my last election I voted then asked the poll clerk how many people
were on the list from my address. He wouldn't tell me until after I
voted then told me the answer after I had told him that my wife had
died since the election before that and wanted to ensure she was off
the list which she was.
As to the multiple votes -- when we had polling places, we had to go
to /our/ polling place because only voters on the books for the
precincts voting there could vote there. So that would have been
possible only if they had been /registered/ in different precincts,
one for each polling place they used. Which, depending on their level
of sophistication and determination, might be a bit difficult. This
could be viewed as a disadvantage of in-person voting not tied to a
single specific location for each voter.
Note that the all-mail system essentially restricts each voter to a
single location -- that person's home (or accomodation address for
homeless voters), at least insofar as receiving the ballot goes.
Every system can be gamed. But the only Party known to have moved
illegal immigrants around is the Republican Party (Texas and Florida).
Note to vote, of course, but still ... they did bus/fly them from one
city to another.
-- "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,Who evil spoke of everyone but God,Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"
Three Body Problem
Re: Three Body Problem