Mail-in election gets strong voter approval

[Hawkeye-X]

Source: 9news (Denver)

DENVER - Coloradans are speaking and they are speaking loudly - county clerks around the state are reporting huge turnouts for Tuesday's election and votes for both the Democrat and Republican primaries have already broken previous records.

It is the first primary in Colorado history where counties had the option to hold an all mail-in ballot election.

Several county clerks tell 9NEWS their voters are up in this primary election by the tens of thousands.

Read more: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=147744&catid=339

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I am one of the many many who have mailed in their ballots. I support it 100%

[Wilms]

1. Mail-in election gets strong election integrity activist DIS-approval

Beware Absentee By Mail Ballots - mail ballot problems in the news

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x516014

[Wilms]

2. BradBlog: Why 'Vote-by-Mail' Elections are a Terrible Idea for Democracy

"Many Oregonians will tell you they believe their system is wonderful, yet many of the Election Integrity advocates on the ground there, including many we've spoke with at the Oregon Voting Rights Coalition, warn that the success of the state's VBM program is largely based on good procedures put in place by Bradbury, and which they fear may disappear, as they are not statutory, when he is someday no longer the state's SoS."

snip

Many are unaware that their mailed-in ballots will be scanned by the same error-prone, easily manipulated optical-scan machines which handle paper ballots for precinct-based voting. But even worse, ballots mailed in, if they arrive safely, and are counted at all, are usually counted "in the dark," versus ballots scanned either at the polls on Election Day, or at county headquarters after the close of polls when citizens are often there to watch.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6003

[quakerboy]

7. So make them statuary

Way the fuck better than unaccountable voting machines.

I normally follow bradblog and appreciate being informed by him. But he is barking up the wrong tree on this one.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. Here in Oregon we have mail-in ballots, so simple and easy.

Take your time, has to be cheaper and recounts are easy.

[greiner3]

4. I've voted absentee in OH for years;

And I too have some concerns of machine 'error.' However, with an absolute paper trail I sleep better.

[Wilms]

5. The "absolute paper trail" in OH 2004 didn't exactly save the day.

Did it? :shrug:

That's no fault of VBM vs. going to the poll, but it's important to understand that being recountable is not the same as being recounted.

[msongs]

6. proof your vote was received & tamper free? none. proof it was counted? none. nt

[quakerboy]

8. so.. Same as regular voting, but at least you don't have to take a day off work to do it?

I trust the post office to make sure my ballot makes it to its destination untampered with more than I trust the proprietary software on a electronic voting box to count my vote properly toward the final total.

[davidpdx]

9. I do too

We have had it in Oregon for over a decade now. The last time I went to the polls was sometime right after I graduated college. Everything is by mail.

[Bandit]

10. This is the one area where Democrats are just plain stupid

Vote by mail is the ONLY way for getting consistent turn out and has proved to be as reliable or more so than voting at the polls.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. It works great here in Florida

[Wilms]

12. FL: Absentee ballots returned to sender - Votes boomerang thanks to automatic sorters

When Phil Douglas went to the post office in Estero on Saturday to mail absentee ballots for him and his wife, he assumed their votes would be counted and began to focus on an upcoming trip.

The votes were returned to his house, two days in a row.

Turns out a design flaw in the envelopes causes post office machines to scan a voter's return address instead of the destination address.

Postal officials were made aware of the issue Tuesday and have begun telling employees to watch for the ballots and sort them by hand to make sure they get to elections officials rather than the return address.

snip

But it's not the first time the post office and Lee County elections office have grappled over the design of ballot envelopes.

snip

"I don't think we ought to take this lightly," Douglas said. "The problem could be big. If people leave town, what are (they) going to do? Not count their vote?"

snip

http://www.news-press.com/article/20100811/NEWS0107/8110373/1075/Absentee-ballots-returned-to-sender


Just sayin'. :shrug: