Bill Bradbury Hawks Vote-By Mail to Pennsylvania

Apparently Bill Bradbury is not satisfied with eliminating the secret ballot in Oregon, now he’s on a mission to eliminate the secret ballot nationally as well:

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wpsu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1295502§ionID=1

Bradbury claims, “We will have the cleanest, the most accurate voter registration rolls in the country in about another two years, because there’s this constant cleansing, because of the returned ballots, that lead to inactive voter status.”

The idea was generally well-received by the Pennsylvania legislators, although Democrat Robert Freeman of Northhampton County was worried about tradition “The one concern I have is the end of that civic ritual, going to a polling place, making a conscious effort to be there in line with your neighbors, casating your vote in a democratic style,” Freeman said.

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Alabama Absentee Voting Totals Questioned

This case has it all, a guy named Michael Jackson, a mayor’s race up in the air over absentee ballot totals, and a candidate accused of “helping” people vote:

http://www.tidesports.com/article/20080609/NEWS/865620239/-1/RSS04&source=RSS

In Marion, the county seat, the 2004 mayor’s election has still not been settled because of a court challenge over allegations of improper absentee ballots.

District Attorney Michael Jackson said he expects there will be federal and state observers in Perry County for the July 15 primary runoff after a federal observer reported that a candidate hung around a polling place much of the day Tuesday and helped some voters cast ballots.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman has pointed to a number of irregularities in Perry County during Tuesday’s primaries. Chapman said there are 8,361 registered voters in the county, and 4,207 votes cast, which means 50.3 percent of eligible voters would have gone to the polls. That gives Perry County a turnout that nearly triples the rate in counties like Marengo, where about 17.7 percent of voters cast ballots.

Chapman also said there were 1,114 absentee ballots cast in Perry County, compared with seven in Hale county and 14 in Crenshaw County — both of which have larger populations than Perry.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has seized voting records in Perry County.

San Bernadino, California, “Voting By Mail Made Easy”

In the usual refrain, Vote-By Mail is being touted as the savior to the many inconveniences of poll place voting. Including, somehow it is suppose to actually decrease “over-voting.” Which is a truly amazing feat, since most paper-ballot machine counted systems, like the fill-in the circle optical scan ballots actually will automatically reject over-voted ballots, however VBM (Vote-By Mail) systems cannot take advantage of this feature.

Anyway, there’s about a half dozen totally nonsensical things in this article, see if you can spot them:

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/news/ci_9403652

The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters has launched its “Vote By Mail, Voting Made Easy” campaign designed to educate residents about the advantages of casting their ballots by mail as an alternative to voting in person.

The campaign touts voting by mail as a convenient, reliable way to cast a ballot.

In 2007 the California State Legislature renamed absentee voting “vote by mail.” The move was an attempt to increase overall voter turnout by appealing to residents who would ordinarily not vote due to accessibility or scheduling issues associated with voting at polling places.

The Vote By Mail campaign’s other aim is to decrease errors, such as over-voting, by providing voters the hassle-free experience of voting on their schedules and in their own homes.

“This is an ideal year to promote voting by mail with all of the interest at the presidential level. We also want to encourage voter participation in the June 3rd statewide primary,” said San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil. “Now individuals have another voting option open to them, and we hope they take advantage of this opportunity to never miss an election in California.”

Verjil notes another benefit that may appeal to some.

“The first results you’ll see reported on election night reflect votes cast in advance by mail, since those can be counted prior to polls closing,” she said.

89 Articles About Why Voting By Mail is a Very Bad Idea

Are you wondering why voting by mail or absentee is a bad idea? Are you looking for information about the problems encountered by all absentee voting systems? Well then, welcome to The No Vote By Mail Project’s Website. There’s hundreds of articles now in the archives, so I thought I’d put together a giant list of the best articles I’ve written so far about voting by mail and the problems I’ve found. It might take a few days to put together, but here’s what I have so far:

1.  What’s Wrong With Voting by Mail or Absentee Ballot
2. The Death of the Polling Place
3. Absentee Ballot Fraud Hits Texas, Grannyfarming a longterm problem
4. Milwaukee Police Find Numerous Cases of Absentee Vote Fraud
5. Vladimir Putin Prefers Voting By Mail
6. Don’t Forget to Sign Your Ballot
7. Absentee voting on the rise, who’s pushing this agenda?
8. Vote-By Mail disenfranchises 1/3rd of Kitsap County Primary Voters
9. New Jersey Voters Vote Again?
10. MIT Study says “Abolish on-demand absentee voting”
11. Vote-By Mail and Electronic Poll Books
12. More Vote By Mail Problems in California
13. Oklahoma State Auditor and wife charged with Mail Fraud
14. California’s televised primary debates miss many voters
15. California Primary Slowed By Vote-By Mail, Absentee Ballot Count
16. Another Case of Vote-By Mail Fraud
17. Democrats say,”An easier way to vote fraudulently is by mail”
18. How VBM is Screwing Up California’s Primary
19. Postmasters Lobby for Vote-By Mail
20. Absentee Ballot Fraud Alleged in Putin’s Election
21. Just where or where has my mail ballot gone?
22. Colorado Voter Group Opposes Vote-By Mail Switch
23. 4204 Passing, King County Gets the Blame
24. Absentees and Optical Scans, a Combination that Doesn’t Work
25. Day 6 of vote counting in King County
26. Poll Votes much faster to count then Absentee Ballots
27. Did you already vote by mail? Well it’s too late to change your mind now…
28. More Absentee Ballot Fraud
29. Expanding and Improving Opportunities to Commit Vote By Mail Fraud
30. Vote by Mail Fraud, You Don’t Say
31. Absentee Ballot Problems in Akron, Ohio
32. More research shows vote by mail systems do NOT increase turnout
33. King County Executive, Ron Sims, Contracts to Buy Ballot Tracking Vaporware
34. Hanky Panky In Union Vote-By Mail Scheme
35. The Election is in the Mail… Day 14
36. Some Democrats Reject Forced Vote-By Mail
37. Vote by mail increases turnout?
38. My mail from June 13, 2006
39. Vote Buying (You don’t say)
40. Voter turnout – higher or lower or the same?
41. VBM turns out about 1/3rd of Washington Voter’s
42. King County Adds 27,114 Votes in 3rd Day of Counting
43. 4th Day of Vote Counting brought to you by Vote-by Mail
44. 1 Week Later… Votes still coming in to King County Elections
45. 798 More Ballots Arrive One Week After the Election…
46. US Postal Service Unions Pushing Vote-By Mail
47. King County wraps up seventh day of vote counting
48. Diebold Dazzles (King County) Democrats
49. Colorado Editorial: Ripe for Fraud
50. Montana’s Secret Ballot Increasingly Endangered Species
51. Postmaster General Adresses National Association of Secretaries of State
52. Let’s all vote by mail, just like…Texas
53. Hand Counted Paper Ballots for 2008?
54. Barack Obama Targets Vote Banking through Vote By Mail in California
55. Pierce County Sacrifices Polling Places for Forced Vote By Mail Absentee Voting
56. Granny Farming of Absentee Ballots in NJ
57. More on Kentucky Absentee Ballot Fraud
58. Take the Last Train to Clarksville, and Don’t forget to Vote
59. More Absentee Votes Might Not Count Due to County Errors
60. King County’s Wreckless Plan to Switch To Vote-By Mail
61. Harvard’s Ben Adida on Vote By Mail and the Secret Ballot
62. Saving Money At The Price Of Democracy
63. Vote-By Mail Lobbyist Targets Colorado
64. King County, WA, 13 Days of Vote Counting, Seattle Special Election, 2007
65. Why Mail Ballots Are a Bad Idea
66. New Report on Vote By Mail, VBM Does Not Really Increase Turnout
67. George Galloway Blasts UK’s Postal Voting System
68. Oregon and Other States Mail Service Outsourced?
69. Vote Buying, Bath County, KY
70. New Group to Push VBM Nationally
71. Taiwanese Mull Absentee Voting, and China’s Potential Influence On Voters
72. The “Myth” of Vote Fraud
73. The Death of the Polling Place, Island County, WA
74. “Granny Farming” Allegations in Michigan, Virginia, and California moves towards VBM
75. Vote By Mail a Growing National Attack on Democracy
76. More Postal Vote Fraud in the UK
77. Vote Buying in Kentucky
78. When a Secret Ballot Isn’t Really A Secret Ballot
79. Prosecuting Honest Voters Does Not Restore My Confidence In Forced Mail Voting
80. Vote By Mail, Not Cheaper, No Suprise
81. Absentee Ballot Fraud Allegations and other News, 1/24/2007
82. California Declares Mail Ballot Only Precincts 
83. NJ Absentee Ballot Stuffing
84. Oregon We Have a Problem
85. The Ongoing Drama of Absentee Voting Problems
86. Mayor Uses Absentee Ballots to Rig Election, Dateline Nov. 30th, 2006
87. One Month After the Election… Votes Still Being Counted
88. Vote By Mail-A Great Example of Voting Badly
89. More Electoral Fraud By Mail – Dec. 12, 2006

Post Office Loses Ballots in Florida Election Contest

Something I’ve warned about in this blog continuously over the past two years, is the US Post Office’s ability to lose mail. Well in Florida it actually made the news when absentee ballots were lost in the race for State House District 55:

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=76237

Molinaro says the race is in jeopardy because of a mix-up at the post office. 1117 absentee ballots – gone.

“They show a record of them coming into that clearing house, but not going out, and nothing going through Tampa or going back to St. Pete,” she explained. 

Of course anyone with a functioning brain could have predicted such an occurence. Just ask yourself how much of your neighbor’s mail have you received in the past few years. But the forces behind Vote-By Mail will not give up just because ballots are sometimes lost, in fact, it’s probably statistically safe to say ballots are lost in virtually every Vote-By Mail election.

Vote-By Mail Not Accurate Enough to Conduct Florida Primary

Much has been said about the possible “do-over” in Florida and Michigan’s primary. And recently the idea of going to an all mail-in primary has been suggested as a way to re-do Florida.

Mail-in balloting is not accurate enough to clearly distinguish a winner when the candidates are this close.  It has problems with signature rejection, lost mail, late arriving mail, and outright vote fraud.  Between Clinton and Obama the system just is not good enough to legitamately choose a winner.  The error-rate from people just forgetting to sign their ballots is quite likely greater than the percentage difference between these two candidates.

Of course, Miami voters should clearly remember the 1997 Mayoral race as well, a race eventually thrown out because of massive amount of absentee voting fraud…

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E4D61E39F931A25752C1A961958260

http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-88.htm

Oh, well as long as it’s cheaper.

New York Looks To Ease Absentee Ballot Restriction, NY League of Women Voters Supports Eliminating Secret Ballot

 

Everytime I see an article about the push to ease absentee ballot restrictions, I’m always amazed that the League of Women Voters supports this move. Why is this suprising? Because the League of Women Voters has traditionally supported the secret ballot. However absentee ballots are not secret ballots, and for one, enable fraud like Granny Farming.

Judie Gorenstein, of the New York Suffolk County League of Women Voters, who supports the easing of restrictions on absentee ballots, was quoted in the Suffolf Life Newspaper, “We think it will decrease problems on Election Day if people can vote by mail.” Maybe Judie Gorenstein, and other members of the League around the country have never seen a detailed breakdown of the problems that absentee voting causes regularly, wherever and whenever it is used, so here’s that list. 

But it’s not just New York’s League that supports this move, most state chapters of the League seem to support this move as well. Florida’s League has in fact set up a website called, VoteAnywhere.org, to push this agenda. Here’s hoping that once they’ve done some homework on the subject that the League will amend it’s position on voting-by mail, and continue instead to support the secret ballot.

Milwaukee Police Find Numerous Cases of Absentee Vote Fraud

The Milwaukee Police Department just issued a report on their probe into the 2004 election and found numerous cases of vote fraud. Many of these cases were a direct result of absentee voting. From campaign workers voting illegally from other states, to unopened ballot envelopes recorded as counted, and opened envelopes recorded as uncounted, the report details a  system in great disarray.

http://graphics.jsonline.com/

What is most troubling is that each ineligible ballot accepted in effect cancels a legal vote cast by a Wisconsin state resident.

Well that’s one way of saying it. The whole report is a pretty good breakdown of what’s wrong with voting in Milwaukee, but also details quite a few specifics to absentee voting, a good read, and a great report. Congrats to the Milwaukee Police department for putting this together. If only our elected officials could do this good of analysis.

While in Oklahoma early voting has started, and they have a really great way of preventing absentee voting fraud in that state…. they make you swear you won’t commit fraud, really…. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried:

http://www.mcalesternews.com/local/local_story_059110438.html

“In-person absentee ballot voters fill out a form when they get to the office,” Thornton said. “They are required to swear that they have not voted a regular mail absentee ballot and they will not vote at their polling place on election day.”

Whew, now that’s security.

Indiana Looks to Ease Absentee Restrictions

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/02/14/news.qp-7684997.sto

The above article requires a subscription. But it’s another state trying to ease absentee laws, paving the way for 100% Vote-By Mail over time, as Washington, California, and Oregon are used as test cases.

The other news out of Indiana is that Secretary of State Todd Rokita is supporting a Early Voting Center plan, but one that will apparently replace (not supplement) the precinct system. Hand-in-hand this looks like the same move planned for many other states, push to shut down precincts, open regional centers, and then when voters complain about not having enough precinct-level “easy to get to” poll sites, offer the Vote-By Mail solution.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/793788,votecenter.article

Bill 235 could face a tough legislative fight over a provision allowing Indiana voters to cast absentee ballots without explaining why they can’t go to the polls.

So the method of implementation is clear for election officials, first create a problem, paperless touchscreens or regional voting centers, and then create the solution Vote-By Mail because the average voter will think it is both “convenient & a paper ballot.”

Ha!

Absentee voting on the rise, who’s pushing this agenda?

Ohio’s News Herald has a relatively balanced article on the rise of absentee voting, but doesn’t dig much below the surface:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19289537&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6 

To keep up with the demand, the board hired 30 part-time temporary employees at $10 an hour.
“If demand for absentee ballots continues at this rate, more people than ever could vote by mail than in any other election in the county’s history,” West said. “The last time vote-by-mail numbers were this high was in the November 2006 election, when the governor’s race was on the ballot and over 105,000 voters requested vote-by-mail ballots.”
In Geauga County, there were 1,700 absentee voters in the last presidential election. For the March 4 election, 1,800 voters already have requested absentee ballots.
“We may double the amount from the last presidential election,” Director Arch Kimbrew said.

The article then quotes John Fortier, about some of the problems with the rising trend towards more absentee voting. But what I really want to know is who’s pushing this agenda? Why are they pushing this agenda? And how are they funding lobbyists around the country to push this agenda?