LTE in Virginia: Votes still not counting

beachmom

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Sat Dec-31-05 08:29 AM
Original message

LTE in Virginia: Votes still not counting

Edited on Sat Dec-31-05 08:31 AM by beachmom

I just read this letter in my paper about the recount here in Virginia for attorney general (of course, the Pat Robertson backed Republican won). Next time Fedup and I vote, it will be on Diebold:

http://www.pilotonline.com

Not every vote counts

Re “It’s official: McDonnell the winner after recount” (front page, Dec. 22):

After witnessing the Dec. 20 recount for the attorney general race as an observer from Virginia Beach, I was left feeling that some voters were denied their most basic freedom. We recounted only a few of the 80+ precincts and found 10 more votes. There are over 2,300 precincts statewide.

When a three-judge panel says the closest statewide election in modern history doesn’t warrant a full recount, what does? How many errors did it take to drop a 3,000-vote margin to only 300? Will AG Bob McDonnell feel duty bound to seek a fix?

Did you know we won’t have ballots soon? That’s scary after seeing how many mistakes are made by our poll officials — neglecting to remove all ballots, poll books with more voters than ballots cast and lots of chicken scratch on the official records.

When I left my voter kiosk, I checked the paper ballot and saw my choices before a counting machine saved my ballot. Soon we will only be totals on a flimsy tape that can be and was misplaced during that Tuesday’s task.

Touchscreens are so much easier unless you hate computers. Thanks to Diebold’s former CEO and Bush followers like him, you can forget getting an ATM-style printout of your vote. Oh well, we don’t count all the ballots anyway.

Mario Granger
Virginia Beach

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ProSense

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Sat Dec-31-05 10:18 AM
Response to Original message

1. You know,

I sure hope they rectify this voting and vote counting situation soon. You'd think everybody would want to get to resolve it and restore confidence in the system. Problem is that this is a huge country with a lot of a**holes in it.

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fedupinBushcountry

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Sat Dec-31-05 10:28 AM
Response to Original message

2. I refused to vote on Diebold this time

I had that choice, but next year during important Congressional elections Diebold moves in. That scares the hell out of me. I asked about a receipt and the guy working at the poll laughed at me, people are so uneducated on this.

I also remember our Governor on election night saying about the AG to close to call race, that EVERY VOTE will count. Where is he now speaking out on this unfair recount. :shrug:

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rox63

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Sat Dec-31-05 10:39 AM
Response to Reply #2

3. Vote absentee next time

Then you know it's on paper. That's what I did in 2004, and that's what I intend to keep doing.

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babylonsister

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Sat Dec-31-05 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #3

4. But absentee votes can easily be 'lost'. I don't trust that

method either.:-(

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fedupinBushcountry

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Sat Dec-31-05 11:32 AM
Response to Reply #4

5. I don't either

and many of my daughter's college friends did not believe their votes were counted even though they sent in absentee ballots. There were also many problems with voters that were living abroad and their absentee ballots. Our system really sucks.

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ginnyinWI

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Sat Dec-31-05 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. Our local Dem party had a solution to that

They kept track of every absentee ballot that was requested by a Dem voter in the county, then they checked that the same number of ballots actually made it into the counts of each precinct. So these votes were actually more secure than the others, which I think are mostly optically scanned around here.
It shouldn't have to be this way, though.

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beachmom

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Sat Dec-31-05 02:29 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. You are not allowed to cast an absentee ballot unless you are

truly out of town, per the Virginia law. True, this is based on an honor system, but technically speaking, if you are in town on Election Day and had submitted an absentee ballot, you have committed voter fraud. Plus I like the idea of a secret ballot, but with the absentee, they know who you are and who you voted for. I also agree with the others about it getting "lost".

This is what we should do:

1. Have Election Day fall on a Sunday, OR make Election Day be a holiday, including having the stock exchange down (so a lot of people in the private sector will get the day off).

2. Use a paper ballot, where you simply check the names of who you want. That's what lots of other countries do; the only thing extra that it requires is patience for the results. Second place: paper ballot with an optical scanner, with a 3% audit to make sure it is working properly.

3. Make the people who run elections from the local precincts all the way to the State be nonpartisan. Heck, I would be willing to do that job, and despite any viewpoint I may have, every Republican vote would count on my watch, too.

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sandnsea

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Sat Dec-31-05 02:51 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. No, they don't know who you vote for

And it can't get "lost". There's a double envelope. The outside envelope is used to mark the ballots that came back and check your signature against the one on file. So you can send your ballot back early and then call and make sure they got it. They don't count the ballots, but they do begin some processing, at least here in Oregon. Then, on election day, they pull all the ballots and run them through. Our ballots all go to one main location in the county, so we don't have the precinct problems either which I think really reduces the chances of fraud. If machine fraud is committed in Oregon, there's only two places it can happen, the county office or the state office.

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ray of light

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Sun Jan-01-06 12:31 AM
Response to Reply #7

9. I made sure I was out of town. And getting voters to vote in another state

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rox63

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Sun Jan-01-06 10:51 AM
Response to Reply #7

10. Technically, I was out of town

I spent election day volunteering for the NH Dem GOTV effort. Of course, I probably could have voted when the polls first opened that morning. But the local elections people didn't have to know that.

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beachmom

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Sun Jan-01-06 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #10

11. In some states that's perfectly fine; I just know in Va. it's not

Kilgore's (Rep. gov. nominee) mother got in trouble when residents of her county (she was on the Board of Elections) were encouraged to vote absentee ballot even if they were home. This is why I know it's serious business in Virginia not to vote absentee unless you are indeed absent. But in Mass. or other states, the law could be far different.

Sandy -- it sounds like Oregon has an excellent electoral system. I have heard that every state is different as to how "clean" their elections are. It is obvious that Florida and Ohio are "dirty" states, but that Oregon is relatively clean, which is why the mail in vote works well there. It's good to know that absentee ballots still maintain the "secret ballot" aspect to it. I did vote absentee in Conn. in '00, but I can't remember what it looked like. I guess what I was saying is that there is a potential for people to know who you voted for, but obviously, if procedures are followed then that wouldn't be possible.

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