Many Reasons To Oppose All Vote-By Mail Absentee Ballot Systems

So here’s a quick summary of the various reasons that Vote-By Mail systems are problematic:

Absentee ballots are not “secret ballots.”

Absentee ballots are still counted by the same privately owned voting machines that have been in the news, including Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and all the rest.

In many cases, like King County, WA, the Post Office no [...]

Colorado Voter Group Opposes Vote-By Mail Switch

In a Nov 19th, 2007, press release, the Colorado Voter Group offered up a quick summary of why the oppose Vote-By Mail, because the risks of a VBM system include:

Dependence on a new registration system
Ineligible voters voting
Disenfranchised voters
Voter intimidation
Vote buying/selling
Not transparent
Not anonymous
No effective mitigation

You can read the whole press release here. Or, visit the groups [...]

4204 Passing, King County Gets the Blame

 
One of the problems that is exacerbated by going to Vote-By Mail in Washington State is how the big counties are being blamed for close elections “flipping”. In the case of 4204, the simple majority initiative for passing school levies, most of the conservative eastern counties voted against the measure, while King County (the largest [...]

Absentees and Optical Scans, a Combination that Doesn’t Work

 
Poll workers re-voting for You!Take an optical scan ballot, feed it into an optical scan reader, and if that ballot is incorrectly marked, or undervoted, the machine rejects that ballot. In fact, if you are voting at a poll place, this is a really useful feature, because you will have a chance to fix your [...]

Day 6 of vote counting in King County

Yesterday marked the 6th day of vote counting in King County. An additional 12110 ballots were received. 100% of poll votes have been counted. And 54. 64% of the absentee ballots have been received so far.
Total turnout has now increased to 39.08%. Average turnout is approximately 48% in off year elections, according to the county’s statements [...]

Poll Votes much faster to count then Absentee Ballots

Dellusional? That’s our Secretary of State Sam Reed.
Switching to vote-by mail, or forced absentee ballots, was suppose to make the vote counting faster:
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/office/osos_news.aspx?i=gp6Ec29NLGVa6LrnVMk2gg%3d%3d
On election night, vote by mail counties will be able to produce results promptly. Poll site counties must wait for poll sites to report in, some of which require long drives to the [...]

Election Assistance Commission Issues New Guidelines

The United States Election Assistance Commission has issued new guidelines:
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/45364-1.html
Included in the guidelines,  are new recommendations on conducting elections by mail, testing optical scan machines, and media relations. The media recommendations are basically a set of marketing guidelines. While the quickstart guide on voting-by mail is a bit more um… I don’t know… unconstitutional:

Incorporate the [...]

Idaho’s County Clerks will Try Once Again to Move to Vote-By Mail

Idaho is poised to try moving to unrestricted absentee ballots again next year:

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2007/10/31/news/local_state/123723.txt
 
A Second Chance
County clerks give vote-by-mail another try
 
By Jared S. Hopkins
Times-News writer
County clerks will give vote-by-mail a second try when the 2008 Idaho Legislature convenes in January, but they scaled down their attempt from choosing entire elections to only non-candidate [...]