I highly recommend absentee voting this year

[catmandu57]

especially if you're concerned with electronic votes being vaporized. There is still time to request an absentee ballot, and an absentee is a paper ballot.
We're doing it and plan on voting in this way from here on, if there is a flood of paper we can beat diebold.

[LynneSin]

1. And you don't think those things can disappear too

:cry:

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. You can make a copy before you send it in

[helderheid]

3. This is true

[John Gauger]

7. That doesn't mean anything

They aren't denying that you cast your vote, they are just refusing to count it. No form of voting is secure. The GOP has ways of discarding all opposing votes. It's just a crap shoot.

[EFerrari]

14. But it's harder to disappear a paper ballot.

Don't make it easy for them to steal. I think this is a good idea. No, it's not foolproof but it's better than just rolling over. Make them work.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. We have advance voting here

They send you your ballot in the mail. It works just like absentee voting. Or you can go to the election office and vote for a month ahead of election day.

It ain't perfect but it's better than Diebold machines on election day.

[EFerrari]

27. Especially those machines that catch that Ohio "humidity".

There was a group here of progressives that went around registering folks to vote absentee. We invite them to all of our shows because chances are, they'll be registering progressives.


I've no illusions about how these ballots are handled. But is SURE IS better than vapor voting on Election Day!

[hpot]

15. Mark your ballot with Invisible Ink

There is a way to verify that your vote has not disappeared. Special ink can be used to mark a ballot and track your vote. Inks sensitive to UV light are great since there is no need to physically modify the paper during examination.

Access to your vote after the voting period usually requires a simple public records request (to inspect your precinct's ballots).

[Peace Patriot]

16. The idea is to FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of paper ballots

to deal with, and leave the election theft machines idle, gathering dust. BOYCOTT the MACHINES. DON'T vote on them. If enough people vote by AB (and many are--it's up to 50% in Los Angeles)--say, if everybody who despises the Bush Junta votes by AB--and we can reach some sort of critical mass on it, we can create sufficient panic and crisis in the election theft industry to FORCE reform NOW.

AB votes are not "safe" either--and will not insure accurate vote counts in November (that is impossible)--but an AB voting protest on a massive scale CAN put election reformers at the table to demand a restoration of transparent vote counting. By NOT voting on their nefarious machines, we can humiliate the corrupt fools who purchased this crapass technology--electronic voting machines with gaping security holes and extremely vulnerable to insider hacking at the corporate level, with only private corporate personnel privy to the TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY vote tabulation code.

Nothing could be worse than this. And we MUST change this NOW.

The AB voting protest has many potential benefits (among them, increased scrutiny of how AB votes are handled), and no downside. It will HELP turnout--it's a great motivator for the non-voter who says "It's all rigged"--to invite them to join a protest aimed at UN-rigging the system, through massive AB voting.

It's the quickest way to force change. It's easy. Everybody can do it. (Most states have some form of AB voting.) It's a maximum participation protest--and I think there is a whole lot of discontent out there that would like to be expressed.

Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot this November!

[dogday]

25. Can you send your ballot certified mail?

just asking :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. We can here

[MrModerate]

4. I agree in part -- enough to plan on absentee balloting myself . . .

But don't think they can't be tampered with or disappeared. The Washington gubernatorial election of last year was a prime example of misplaced and spoiled absentee ballots.

Keep in mind if they're opened without following the proper protocol, they can be discarded. If you have enough poll workers recruited by a Republican Secretary of State, they can spoil lots and lots of ballots.

However, it DOES make it harder to dispose of them.

[John Gauger]

11. There is nothing we can do

to ensure our votes count. They have a strategy for disposing of all votes.

[MrModerate]

18. Well, I didn't say that . . .

There's a limit to vote tampering above which it becomes so obvious that the people (and the media) can no longer ignore it. And a number of conspirators that exceeds humans' ability to keep such an operation covert.

We're perhaps close to that limit, but not yet over. Which is to say -- they can only steal close elections (IMO), and if we get the turnout, we can mitigate or even overwhelm their vote-stealing.

[flyarm]

5. THEY STILL GET TABULATED BY THE CENTRAL COMPUTER

tabulator..and in 2004 in fla we had alot of absentee ballots destroyed and missing until after certification...

plus it gives the rethugs a heads up on how many they need to steal...

may i make a suggestion..if you vote absentee.. please do not mail it in ahead of time..take it in, in person .. on election day..so you can not be figured in a pre -election count..so repugs can not have a heads up on how much they need to steal the election by.

fly

[never_get_over_it]

10. I don't think the absentee ballot is the fix we need

nor do I think winning by a huge margin is the answer either - because if they are flipping votes and have a non-questioning media what the hell difference does it make how many votes they steal - but your point about not sending the votes in early is fabulous - I hadn't thought of it - but you are right on with this one....

BTW I'm in FL too and I have NO CONFIDENCE AT ALL IN VOTING IN THIS PLACE.

THANKS!!!!

[thereismore]

6. I heard Thom Hartmann saying "don't". Here is why:

In the CA-50 race, it was called to the repug even before the absentee ballots were opened. He was then sworn in the House even before the race was certified. Want to hear a race called before your vote was ever counted? I don't think so. Also, dems voting absentee will skew exit polls toward the repugs, so they can more easily steal it!!!

[shadowknows69]

8. My polling place still has lever polls

but I was informed today that electronic voting WILL be in place for 2008. New York BTW.

[RB TexLa]

9. It's always been smart to do, you could die before election day

[John Gauger]

12. That's good

I always wanted part of my legacy to be voting against the GOP.

[allisonthegreat]

13. More likely to get trashed

I knew someone who worked for the Election Commission in 2004, and she said that they left piles of absentee ballots in their office...

[catmandu57]

17. It's also a very good way around the voter id law passed here

If one is already registered you can request an absentee ballot without having to present an id, if you go to the polls you must present a photo id to vote here now, figure that.

[B Calm]

19. Florida overseas votes were never counted!

[Lindacooks]

20. When Senator Wellstone was killed,

the absentee ballots for him were discarded, and those people had to go to the polls to vote again. But they DID count the absentee ballots for Coleman (R-Weasel), so who knows how many people were disenfranchied?

[catmandu57]

21. If you believe your vote is going to be vaporized

as soon as you cast it what's the problem of making them work at their theft, especially if there is a chance of someone fucking up and getting caught?

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Can anyone vote with an absentee ballot? I thought you had to be

away from your residence too do that? Like out of the Country or traveling in another state during an election.

[catmandu57]

23. Go to your sec of state webpage

and they should have the requirements and process for ab voting. I'm disabled and getting out to the polls is becoming a large pain in the butt, so, i get to vote by mail, so does my wife.
There are several qualifications though.

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. Okay thanks, I will do that. nt

[Peace Patriot]

29. In some states, it's very easy. You don't have to give a reason.

Other states are more restrictive. Check with your registrar or sec of state. Most states have some form of AB voting. It is the ONLY vote that is a NON-COOPERATION WITH THE RIGGED SYSTEM VOTE. What they DO with your AB vote, you cannot help. But you don't have to collude with your own disenfranchisement, by voting on these extremely riggable machines.

And that includes Optiscans. There are many reasons to boycott them--and maybe the best is in protest of the PROFITS to Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia for selling this shit to the states. They, too, on run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code. They, too, are full of egregious security holes. And, in many ways, the paper ballot associated with them is a sham. With optiscans, your vote is separated by the evidence of your vote (your ballot), and your "vote" becomes a bunch of electrons that are "sent" to central electronic tabulators, also run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY code. Many states have NO audit requirement, so the evidence of your vote (your ballot) is never seen again. The best states--the best!--have a 1% audit, which is entirely inadequate in this high-speed, highly manipulable, electronic environment. And recounts are expensive, difficult and extremely rare. So, at best. optiscans have a slight deterrent effect. That's it. Optiscans are being pushed (and the AB voting protest ignored) by Democratic leaders who are corrupt on electronics in government, or outright collusive in favoring this corporate control of our election results. They are trying to PROTECT corporate control of our elections. You will find Common Cause in this camp, and the Democratic Party itself. They all say optiscans are okay. DON'T TRUST THEM! They are wrong. Optiscans are NOT okay.

Your scanned AB vote is equally "unsafe." But AT LEAST YOU ARE SAYING NO TO to this rigged system--and if enough people do it, we can gain the clout to attack the system and get rid of it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

33. I'm in Texas, Bexar County. I will check and if absentee voting is an

option for me, I will certainly use it.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Well, everybody here is missing the point. An AB vote is a PROTEST--

and, hopefully, come this November, it will be part of a BIG, nationwide "vote of no confidence" in these extremely riggable electronic machines, whose TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code is owned and controlled by Bushite corporations--Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. If enough people vote by AB--say, the 65% to 70% of Americans who despise the Bush Junta--this makes it LUDICROUS for them to "call" the election on 30% to 35% of the vote (just the e-votes)! If enough people vote by AB, the corrupt fools who purchased this expensive, crapass election theft technology will be forced to listen (and may be tossed out of office). If enough people vote by AB, we can bring this highly riggable system down!

I can tell you ten different ways that AB votes are not "safe." They are not "safe" on their way to you. 50,000 of them were "lost in the mail" just prior to the 2004 election in Florida, before they reached the voters. They are not "safe" when they get there. They are sometimes pushed aside and counted later. They are sometimes just scanned right into the rigged electronics. They can and will be disqualified, on any excuse, by corrupt officials (although that's true also of registration status, provisional ballots, and other arbitrary decisions). And finally, they can be stolen, deep-sixed, forged or shoved aside--just like paper ballots of old.

Election officials HATE them. And, in the new "culture of secrecy" around our elections, brought on corporate privatization of our election system (and all the corruption that that means), they hate YOU, the voter. YOU are "the enemy." They want to keep you out of it. That's WHY we must FORCE them to deal with the MOST HUMAN form of voting--the Absentee Ballot--and give a big raspberry to their evil machines!

On the whole, I'd say AB votes are as "safe"--or have as much chance of contributing to an accurate count--as the optiscan ballots which are dumped into a box and never seen again as they proceed with their TRADE SECRET electronic games. Where touchscreens are the only option, an AB vote at least provides tangible proof of your vote --a "thing" they have to get rid of, in some fashion, if that's what they are going to do.

The point is to PROTEST, to BOYCOTT, to NOT COOPERATE WITH these goddamned MACHINES--the most diabolical, fascist, vote-stealing scheme every devised. If no one will vote on them, that's it. The election theft industry is over. We make these extremely riggable machines obsolete--and, on the strength of that--the show of strength of citizen outrage--we can then work on the other problems, and there are many of them. But Bushite-controlled hackable voting machines are the WORST problem. It's easy, untraceable rigging, on a massive scale!

I will say this about AB voting:

DO photocopy your ballot. DO fill it out (inside, and the envelope) VERY CAREFULLY (to avoid disqualification). DO hand-deliver it, if possible--or mail registered/return receipt requested, or Fed Ex. And DO--if possible: a) Write a separate letter to your registrar/sec of state demanding TRANSPARENT vote counting--no secret code, PAPER BALLOTS HAND-COUNTED, AND RESULTS POSTED, BEFORE ANY ELECTRONICS ARE INVOLVED; and b) MONITOR the vote counting, demand to SEE where the AB votes are and how they are counted, and to SEE every other aspect of counting.

BOYCOTTING the MACHINES--doubly effective if you write a (separate) letter--is the ONLY way to get rid of them, something we MUST do. The powers-that-be are NOT going to give us back our right to vote voluntarily. We have to FORCE it. This highly riggable system was entrenched in two years' time, with the HAVA billions, and with the collusion of many Democratic leaders. 80% of the nation voted on Bushite-controlled, SECRETLY PROGRAMMED, electronic voting systems in 2004--one third of it with no paper trail at all (for what that is worth in this secretive, high speed environment, with little or no auditing).

We MUST change this. A massive AB voting protest is the only way I can see to do it--quickly and peaceably.

[helderheid]

31. Can you imagine if everyone voted absentee what kind of message that would

send? I mean WOW!!!

[LeftyMom]

32. In some places there's no difference

Here at least a ballot gets optical scanned whether you submit it absentee or in person on election day.

If you do vote absentee (and I have permanent absentee status because I'm a poll worker sometimes,) try to drop it off in person, because a mailed ballot is too easy to misplace.