More research shows vote by mail systems do NOT increase turnout

Over at Election Updates, we find another study that shows what many of the other studies of mail-in voting systems have shown… Voting By Mail does NOT increase turnout in general elections. It may increase turnout in smaller, special elections specific to local elections:
Drawing on data from a large sample of California counties in two [...]

King County Executive, Ron Sims, Contracts to Buy Ballot Tracking Vaporware

In the funniest turn of events in King County Elections Department yet…. Ron Sims terrible plan to move to all forced mail voting was derailed by Jason Aaron Osgood, when Jason (aka Zappini) pointed out that the one of companies that was part of the county’s plan, VoteHere, is actually out of business. Read the [...]

This will not go well for John Kerry

File this under ask a silly question get tasered and led away in handcuffs in reply:
“Andrew Meyer, after asking questions to John Kerry, was shut up by Accent Speakers Bureau, and then escorted by UF police. Student tried to evade arrest, and then was subdued. The student said he would leave, but was handcuffed, and [...]

Hanky Panky In Union Vote-By Mail Scheme

I get a lot of good emails from Paul Lehto on voting integrity issues, including this:
Ballots returned in union election as undeliverable were diverted say prosecutors in election fraud scheme in Teamsters local election. Federal Criminal charges filed against leaders of Teamsters for ‘04 election stealing. http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/547655,CST-NWS-TEAMSTERS08.article
In this case the Teamsters officials were the [...]

Can a County Go After a Voting Machine Company to Recover Loses?

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/NEWS0301/309040008/0/NEWS01

Intelliscan, Inc. Just Another Company Trying to Take Over Democracy?

http://www.intelliscaninc.com/election.htm#online
Who are they, and what do they do? I just found that this company is buying keyword ads for “Vote-By Mail” searches on Google. Intelliscan apparently wants to be a player in the emerging field of online voting (a very bad idea). But they also claim to do work in the Vote-By Mail industry. I [...]

The Election is in the Mail… Day 14

So two weeks after the election, and today finally marks a turning point for King County. It is the first day since the primary where the number of ballots received in one day dropped below the margin of victory for Christine Gregiore in 2004.  That margin of victor was officially 133 votes. Today, the election [...]

Some Democrats Reject Forced Vote-By Mail

Other Interesting Vote-by Mail Videos….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTTQai7yN2M
This video is a first person narrative account of voting in Oregon’s Vote-by Mail system. I really liked the narrator’s term “paper trace” in the place of what voting activists would usually call a “paper ballot”. It is a nice Freudian slip because an absentee ballot is basically just that… a paper trace. Almost like [...]

Vote by mail increases turnout?

From Arizona, the State that rejected Vote-by Mail when the people voted on it last year:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/0828gl-nwvvote0829.html
On Aug. 9, the Maricopa County Elections Department mailed nearly 40,000 ballots to Surprise’s registered voters. As of Friday, the department had received almost 8,000 of them, or roughly 20 percent.
According to the article:
During the last mayoral election, in March [...]