Sensible Idea

[selenite0]

A minor bureaucrat suggested we might want to postpone elections if a terrorist attack happened close to election day. That's not the sensible idea I'm referring to. Sounded to me like somebody coming up with excuses to make Congress allocate more money to his fiefdom. The Bush administration is jumping on the guy with both feet to deny wanting anything like it, while everyone who considers Bush a tyrant is shouting "See! He's going to cancel the election! See the violence inherent in the system!"

OTOH, he does have a point. Manhattan couldn't have an election while dealing with the aftermath and New York postponed the primary scheduled for that day. So if we did have an 11/2 attack we'd be faced with having to postpone the election or having a chunk of the country not vote that day.

t3knomanser came up with a very good idea for how to handle the problem: Have everyone vote absentee. This also fixes all the hanging chad, electronic voting machine, and access to polling stations problems I've heard so much bitching about. And it does it without needing any new rules or equipment. We would need a lot more manpower to count them, but the poll station staffers would be available, and that's a lot of man-hours.

There's some personal appeal too. I could fill out the ballot, seal the envelope, vomit, mail it off, and then stick my fingers in my ears and ignore the rest of the electoral fracas until the counting starts. That'd be nice. Maybe I'll vote absentee this year anyway.

Comments

[snippy]

And we already have a long-term study showing it works: Oregon, which has been vote-by-mail *only* for years now. They mail us the ballots, and we mail them back (or hand-deliver to the election division). No polling places, no conflicts if Election Day is busy for you; you can complete your ballot in the privacy of your own home when it's convenient for you, in your pajamas if you like. Some people throw voting parties with lots of pamphlets and other election material, and have big discussions with their friends, and then fill out their ballots together.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! Proof that it works. I was afraid this might cause fraud worries but it sounds like it worked well there. Thanks.

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

I had made up my mind to vote absentee before the petty bureaucrat made his suggestion, for all of the reasons you just stated.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I usually try to vote absentee anyway, since I've usually done my research on all the people on the ticket within 30 days of the election. I figure I'll take my chance that between the time I send the ballot, and the election day, the people I vote for won't be discovered to be convicted sheep molesters or something like that.

Though convicted sheep molesters might be a better choice than some of the people running...... Sorry, there has to be a better choice than a) someone who makes me furious and almost sick to my stomach, vs. b) someone who may be decent, but has the personality of an ashtray.

I'd like to be able to vote *for* someone, not *against* someone.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a great idea, but when I looked it up for GA, I found that you can only vote by mail if:

You will be absent from your precinct from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on election day
You are 75 years of age or older
You have a physical disability which prevents you from voting in person or you are a constant caregiver of a person with a disability
You are an election official
You are observing a religious holiday which prevents you from voting in person
You are required to remain on duty in your precinct for the protection of life, health, or the safety of the public.

None of these apply to me, and I'm pretty sure if I fill out the application blank asking for reason with "Other: I feel like it," someone will probably not be amused. I suppose I could somehow work it out that I'll be absent for 12 hours on voting day, but that actually seems like more hassle than it's worth. Frankly, if I could do this, I'd be more likely to vote in other elections too, not just the biggies.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Aw, hell.

To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must:

be 65 years or older;
be disabled;
be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible. (http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqabbm.shtml)

Damn. I wonder if "likely to throw up on floor of polling station" counts as a disability? Probably not.

Oooookay--Texas does allow drive-through voting (http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/pamphlets/earlyvote.shtml). I always thought California took the lead on drive-through stuff. I think I may take advantage of the vote-early-in-person option to get it over with.

Texas Early Voting

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

We've found in my precinct that "Early" voting is done on those touch screen machines that don't even give you an ATM-style thermal paper slip of printout showing you were THERE, much less confirming your choices were counted correctly.

In the actual election, the ballots are paper "fill in the bubble" type things. If you foul up a bubble, the paper feeds back out of the rollers and you get a chance to fix it. If it reads, the paper rolls into a lockbox and the total count of sheets read increments on a visible digital counter by "one". So votes are electronically tabulaed quickly, but can be audited later at leisure.

Mail voting is subject to massive fraud in the Dallas Area, see
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2002-04-11/schutze.html

I see the importance of contingency planning, but as a matter of policy the goal should be all effort directed toward voting on the tradition day by the traditional means and to hell with anybody trying to jigger the process.

hmmm

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nymphette_/]

My love slave is a resident of Miami Dade county(ques forboding music) and city officials there are terrrified of a smal scale terror attack on voting stations. If an election can be thrown into disarray over a few hundred votes - I'd say every school building and various churches in the nation are targets that day.

Maybe a sudden delay, announced right before hand, with a re-vote scheduled the next tuesday, isn't a horrid idea.

Militant VOTE OR PISS ON THE BODIES OF THOSE WHO DIED TO GIVE YOU THAT RIGHT!<.b> wench that I am, I've been begging my sweetheart not to vote this year. He doesn't qualify as absentee either : (

I've been predicting for years that the next attack would come before the election, in port city like Miami. What better place to attack the election that the city that f***ed it up before?

After all, then we can all blame Bush for *letting* it happen since his brother is govenor. Maybe he even PLANNED it with AlQaida!

Yes, vomiting on election day may come to pass for many of us. : (

Re: hmmm

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nymphette_/]

god almighty, I'd be ok if Icould just learn to type! gah!

They Don't Ask You Why

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

I always vote absentee because I am (ahem!) an election official. Two things of interesst here: 1) so you use an electronic voting machine at the clerk of court's office instead of at the precinct - same old, same old. 2) In all the years of voting absentee, first as a working RN, then as an election official, they have NEVER asked me how-come I'm voting absentee. There's a line, folks, move it, move it! Feel free to say you'll be out of the county. If, after you've voted absentee, those plans "change" - how could you have known! Go for it!

AND YES, I KNOW I'M YELLING: DO NOT THROW UP/PISS/ETC AT MY POLLING PLACE! I only get $100 for 14 hours - and that ain't enough to cover the above! LOl!

Re: They Don't Ask You Why

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I intend to ensure that he doesn't. He wouldn't, he's a good stoic. He can grit his teeth, come home afterwards, and then throw up.

[archangelbeth]

I'd like to be able to vote absentee, yeah... *sigh*

Reference

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Discussion of elections on 9/11/01:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_07_07.shtml#1089743758 (scroll down for more)

New York postponed its election for that day by two weeks. Boston went ahead and even had an increase in voter turnout.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't believe someone actually publically discussed postponing the election in the case of the attack. That's like an sending out an open invitation to terrorists to come attack us around the election.

Sure, it's something the government needs to be thinking about, but you'd think they'd keep quiet about whatever contengency plans they come up with.

-A

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Note who the someone was in the original link--the bureaucrat who'd be in charge of preparing all the contingency plans. Which would require more funding, more staff, and probably a promotion to the next SES grade. He must've been salivating at the very thought. Wonder if he's figured out yet why his entire chain of command is pissed at him.

The problem with contingency plans for elections is that if they're not set up well in advance they'll be assumed to favor one side or the other. That's asking for problems worse than Florida 2000. If we do anything about this--and just letting things lie may be the best option--it should be a law passed by overwhelming majorities and with Kerry and Edwards attending the signing ceremony. Otherwise it's just grounds for post-election lawsuits again.