When a Secret Ballot Isn’t Really A Secret Ballot

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1096
The above link will take you to a great discussion of why a postal ballot, absentee ballot, or vote-by mail ballot are not exactly secret ballots. It’s eloquent, and if you are looking for a quick summation of the issue, there’s no better discussion I have found anywhere on the web.

Interesting Report on No Fault Absentee Ballot

Another report on the perils of postal voting. This one is here, and was written by Hans A. von Spakovsky, Attorney and Government Affairs Consultant.
His conclusions, whoever he is, are as follows:

Absentee ballots make the job of vote thieves easier
No fault absentee ballot laws do not increase voter turnout and may lead to greater declines [...]

Another Great Article on VBM

http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/301006_absentee_voting.html
In my ongoing search for good writing about absentee ballot fraud, I cam across this article today. It’s from last October, and appeared originally in the Wallstreet Journal. I especially liked this quote:
Mistakes are certainly possible. In 2004, a worker at a Toledo, Ohio, election office found 300 completed absentee ballots in a storage room [...]

Vote Buying in Kentucky

More allegations of vote-buying, dateline Kentucky Feb 13, 2007:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/16685863.htm
The Bath County attorney, on trial for allegedly buying votes during the May primary, spent the weekend in the Fayette County jail. But officials will not say what Donald “Champ” Maze, 46, did to land there. Maze was booked Friday, but jail officials said the only [...]

More Postal Vote Fraud in the UK

The UK moved to an all postal voting system years ago, and though warned of the potential for fraud, ignored the warnings, well…

http://www.24dash.com/localgovernment/17000.htm
Human rights investigators probing alleged election fraud in the UK are visiting London and Brighton next week to take evidence.
The inquiry has been launched by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, [...]

Vote By Mail a Growing National Attack on Democracy

All across the country VBM is being proposed, this article gives a run down of legislative bills aimed at forcing VBM on unsuspecting citizens in several different states:
http://electionline.org/
Once limited to Oregon and some counties in the Western portion of the country, vote-by-mail has gained some traction in recent weeks with proposals advancing in several state houses.

“Granny Farming” Allegations in Michigan, Virginia, and California moves towards VBM

Granny Farming is the process of convincing the elderly to hand over their absentees to political operatives. And a new case has arisen in Michigan:

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=5038701
FLINT (WJRT) – (02/15/07)–With less than two weeks until Election Day, there are accusations of absentee ballot fraud in Flint’s First Ward.
There is now an investigation into the recall [...]

Vote 3 Times to Insure Secrecy and Convenience?

I have not been a fan of Internet Voting in the past, but this system is interesting.  Certainly it could reduce the ability to coerce voters, if they could recast their votes with a new, or newly replaced voting card, or paper ballot at a poll site.
http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=18704
Estonia’s online voting certainly looks likely to reduce the [...]

Oregon’s Former SOS Also Supports VBM Nationally

Just a link to keep track of where the former OR SOS lays out the framework for supporting VBM:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0612.keisling.html

Progressive States Network Supports VBM

Sometimes I like the Progressive States Network. But not in their support of VBM. However, they do have some useful facts and figures.
The Prgoressive State’s Website on VBM