BO worried about Vote by Mail NOW (why???), but co-sponsored Vote by Mail bill in June 2007!

[libbygurl]

More hypocrisy from the BO camp:

On this morning’s (March 12, yesterday's) conference call, Sen. Obama’s campaign manager repeated deep reservations (link 1) about using the mail-in option in both Michigan and Florida. Yesterday, an Obama campaign strategist highlighted what he thought were potential problems:

"Obviously there are concerns about a mail-in vote. I mean, there are concerns about eligibility, ballot security," said during a conference call. (link 1)

Even Sen. Obama is now expressing hesitation (link 2) to endorse a vote by mail system. The Associated Press reported:

Obama...said in an interview with CNN that he had reservations about a vote by mail. "I think there's some concerns in terms of making sure that whatever we do is fair, and that votes are properly counted and the logistics make sense," he said.

But the Obama campaign is making a political argument that doesn’t match Sen. Obama’s legislative record. In June, Sen. Obama co-sponsored a bill that would establish a vote by mail grant program.

The text of the legislation (link 3) Sen. Obama endorsed (link 4) explains the benefits of a vote by mail system over other forms of voting:

(12) Vote by Mail allows voters to educate themselves because they receive ballots well before election day, which provides them with ample time to research issues, study ballots, and deliberate in a way that is not possible at a polling place.
(13) Vote by Mail is accurate--at least 2 studies comparing voting technologies show that absentee voting methods, including Vote by Mail systems, result in a more accurate vote count.
(14) Vote by Mail results in more up-to-date voter rolls, since election officials use forwarding information from the post office to update voter registration.
(15) Vote by Mail allows voters to visually verify that their votes were cast correctly and produces a paper trail for recounts.

3/12/2008 11:47:40 AM #

From The Fact Hub, hillaryclinton.com.


LINKS:

1. (with link to audio of conf. call in notes) http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/03/obama_conference_call_31208_no.html

2. AP story about 'Obama Camp Concerned About Mail-In Votes/(By NEDRA PICKLER – 1 day ago )
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5igrYLRrHG3P6lIbs2E7pSH0bxhvgD8VBJDO00

3. Check out actual text of the legislation here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.979:

4. and BO's name on it here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00979:@@@P

[vireo]

1. fair? properly counted? sensible logistics?

Like caucuses, right, Barack?
:rofl:

[robbedvoter]

2. Why? Because his supporters who voted in the GOP primaries will be disqualified

[NastyRiffraff]

3. He doesn't want MI & FL votes counted, period.

For obvious reasons...he'd lose them both.

The sad thing is that had these two states held their primaries when they were scheduled, we would be seeing a very different race right now. Obama knows this, too. He's willing to reverse himself on VBM to win this thing.

[Maribelle]

4. Sadly, I have huge problems with the latest proposal for Florida

Here is the latest and it is in PDF format:

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/12/15/3-12-08_Memo_to_Congressionals.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf


#1 One huge problem for me: On the TIMELINE it appears they are going to let people register as Democrats up until Wednesday April 30th. For the original primary on January 29th, you had to have registered as a Democrat by December 31, 2007. The new date of April 20th needs further clarification - for instance can you switch from being a Republican and will they verify that the person switching did or did not vote in the Republican primary? Can residents new to Florida register - - and will they verify that the new resident did or did not vote in a primary in another state? It just seems to me, this one issue is begging for voter fraud. What do you guys think?

#2 This proposal contains a combination of voting by mail-in or voting in person at one of 50 voting places throughout the state. All registered Democrats will be receiving a ballot in the mail.

Now, we have all heard many Obama supporters claiming a lot of Floridians did not vote because they heard their votes would not count. Yet, every single registered Democrat at the time received a sample ballot in the mail with instructions that they should vote in the primary, that their vote was important, and that their vote would count. So, now these same ones that evidently paid no attention to the important information they received before about their vote are going to pay attention to the important information they receive about their vote in April? This doesn't make any sense to me.


#3 Florida is a very transient area. People move often. I believe it will be a nightmare managing the distribution of the ballots to the addresses on the registration lists.


Please tell me I am just being a scrapper hunting for sharks' teeth.