Reminder: Washington primaries are TOMORROW, Aug. 21

[TechBear_Seattle]

The state legislature moved the date of the regular state primary to the third Tuesday in AUGUST, which is tomorrow. Remember to show up at the polls or get your ballot in the mail!

[LisaM]

1. I'm actually very confused

Did we get a ballot in the mail? I don't remember seeing one. I've also gotten THREE voter registration cards in the last two years (the last one moved my polling place). Am I supposed to go there with just my new card, or am I supposed to have received a ballot (which I don't think I did, but I'm not sure). If I did get a ballot but show up without it, can I vote?

This vote by mail system is maddening in so many ways. We have to be really careful about our mailboxes, because thieves raid them from time to time looking for checks. I think it's really unsafe to mail out ballots. I've complained and complained to King County but never get a response from them.

I also don't recall getting a voter's pamphlet this time around and I am completely uneducated on how to vote.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I don't think vote-by-mail has been mandated yet

A while back, Seattle held an "advisory" vote (read: expensive showboat) regarding the Alaska Way Viaduct. That was done strictly vote-by-mail at the insistance of the City Council. King County will be going all vote-by-mail in 2008, starting with the February special elections. I can't speak for other counties, sorry.

If you were previously registered to get a mail-in ballot, you should have gotten one. Otherwise, go to the polling place shown on your most recent voter registration card.

As for the voter registration pamphlets, blame the Postal Service. Rather than put them in our mailboxes (like they are supposed to by law), the mail carrier at my apartment complex dropped a stack inside the front door. I got one only by fishing the stack out of the garbage, where some traitorous resident (or guest) relocated them.

The King County election page is at http://www.metrokc.gov/vote.htm
Information on the primary items (candidates and ballot measures) for King County can be found at http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/

[LisaM]

3. Yes, I looked it up online, thanks.

It looks as if I will have a chance to at least vote against Jean Godden.

I do live in King County, and am vehemently opposed to all-mail voting (with the votes then tallied on Diebold machines) but my complaints, and those of a lot of others, are falling on deaf ears. They seem determined to proceed.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. At least the tally machines have a verifiable back-up

If all else fails, they have the actual paper ballots which can be counted by hand.

My complaints against all-mail elections have to do with the chain of accountability.

* I have no guarantee that I actually get a ballot. If one fails to come in the mail, is the fault of the Elections Division for not sending it out, is it the fault of the US Postal Service for not delivering it properly, or is it the fault of a mail handler or carrier who decided to throw the election by not delivering ballots to areas known for certain voting patterns?

* I have no guarantee that the Election Division will get my ballot. Once I drop it in the mail, what is obviously a ballot from an area known for certain voting patterns is touched by an unknown number of unknown persons. It would be trivial for ballots to "accidentally" drop on the ground and get kicked under some equipment or "accidentally" sent to the dead letter office or "accidentally" get damaged or "accidentally" disappear. Prove to me that my ballot arrives at the Election Division, and I might trust mail-in voting.

Lastly, I assert that requiring voters to pay postage is akin to an involuntary poll tax, ie I can not vote unless I hand money over to the government. It is one thing if people pay this out of choice, but unconstitutional if there is no choice.

[LisaM]

5. I so agree about the postage thing (and your other points as well)

For that "advisory" vote, I actually had to also send in a copy of my signature, in case it's changed. That didn't come till about two weeks before the "election" and didn't really give me enough time to send it back, but I sent it anyway - so I was in for a total of 78 cents, which I think would already cost more, since stamps have gone up. I really don't like that aspect of it at all. Why can't postage be prepaid?

[eridani]

6. Or, in the process of stamp cancellation, ink on a folded ballot--

--could be transferred to places on the ballot where it doesn't belong, leading to rejection by the central tabulators and the necessity for costly duplication. At a polling place, if your ballot doesn't tabulate, you can do the correction yourself.

I don't know about the poll tax analogy--how about bus fare, or the gas you use to get you to a polling place?

I have an absentee ballot, but I turn it in a my polling place to avoid mail hassles.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. That has already been hashed out

See the discussion http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3464186&mesg_id=3464186">here.

:hi: