About California's absentee ballots

[CatWoman]

Does anyone know if one group tends to vote absentee over the other (i.e., Republican vs Democrat)?

I understand they have been mailed out already. Probably before stories broke over the latest allegations.

How many absentee ballots went out?

And who tends to vote mostly via absentee ballot?

[bluestateguy]

1. Absentee ballots

It's not much different than the regular electorate. 20 years ago absentee ballots used to be mostly the province of the well to do and Republican (heaven forbid they should have to sully themselves by standing in line at the polls). But absentee voting has reached much father into all demographics of California and much farther down the socioeconomic ladder. I heard that as many as 3 million absentee ballots had been mailed out.

[jenk]

2. the elderly and handicapped I assume

people who will be away for whatever reason, they usually cast the absentee ballots

[cally]

3. California also allows permanent absentee ballots

Lot's of folks who routinely vote, choose this option.

[CMT]

4. remember too that people started sending in their absentee ballots

when Cruz was five-points ahead of Arnold and the Recall question in the polls was only narrowly ahead like 50-47 (in Field poll) so it might not be as big of a GOP advantage as we think. Typically I do think though that absentee ballots favor the GOP, but Dems have in the last few years also utilizing them much more.

[quaker bill]

5. In Fla.

The repugs did major "get out the vote" organizing through absentee ballots. That is why * wanted to be sure they were all counted.

Dem's did some of this as well but focused their efforts on getting people to the polls. That is why * did not want all of those votes counted.

Don't know how it works in Ca. But, in Fla, Gov. Jeb and the repug lege pushed through "absentee ballot liberalization" which allows anyone to vote absentee for any or no reason. Then the repug party sent pre-filled out absentee ballot applications to all registered repugs. Just sign and mail then vote at your leasure.

[candy331]

9. Prefilled ballots

in Fla. My that sounds like Democracy is fastly leaving this country.

[truthseeker1]

6. I voted absentee for the first time this election

Both my husband and I voted absentee for the first time (also voted Dem for the first time!). I believe it was Moveon.org that prompted me to request absentee ballots for us. It's not that we can't go to the polls, we just thought this would be easier. Plus we had heard the buzz that many of the polling places would be closed.

We did learn through this experience, however, that if we're leaning towards a third-party candidate (which we were - we were leaning towards Arianna and Peter) that we should wait until the last possible minute to complete and mail our ballots if we're going to go with the 3P - otherwise, they could drop out at the last minute, like Arianna did. Fortunately, we had decided to go with Cruz (ick) instead just to keep Arnold out. Runoff elections would be so great, wouldn't they?

[jiacinto]

7. Traditionally Republicans

These examples come to mind:

The 1982 Governor's race in CA. Tom Bradley led on election night, only to lose to George Deukmajian after absentee ballots were counted.

The 1988 FL Senate race. Buddy MacKay was leading on election night, but fell behind to Connie Mack when they counted the absentee ballots the next morning.

The 1996 House race between Loretta Sanchez and Bob Dornan. Dornan was leading on election election night but lost to Sanchez when they counted the final votes.

A few House races in WA swung back to the Republicans after absentee ballots pushed them ahead of Democrats.

So I can think of only one example where Democrats won on absentee ballots, but several where Republicans eked out wins.

I would say t

[Noordam]

8. I will never vote Touchscreen again. vote absentee until

a paper trial is there.

:(

[CatWoman]

10. You have me really thinking, Noordam

I'm going to follow your advice.

[nostamj]

11. 2 million

*somewhere* in my on- and off-line news surfing, I'm sure I saw it stated that there are 2 million absentee ballots already cast.

it's all about ENRON.

CA, please, stop Arnulled. he's BushCo

www.gregpalast.com

[Rainbows]

12. Rural areas

Many rural areas have begun to use absentee ballots for convenience to voters as well as a cost saving measure. As counties become more straped for cash the cost of maintaining polling places in rural areas is an area where savings can be found with a viable alternative. Another good point is the distrust many feel toward electronic voting without a paper trail, the absentee ballot allows one to know his/her voted has been physically recorded. In fact without exit polls to check machine results, the absentee ballot could become a comparison to machine tabulation results if used widly enough. It does in my county cost 37 cents to vote, but would cost me two dollars worth of gas to use a polling place.