972
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] SuperIce@lemmy.world 54 points 3 months ago

CA just does universal mail in ballots. I can read about the issues and candidates at home while filling out the ballot and then walk a block to a letter drop box to submit my ballot. Then I can just track its status online. It's great.

[-] something_random_tho@lemmy.world 40 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It really is a good system that's super easy and builds confidence in the election through online tracking. No wonder Republicans don't want it in their states.

[-] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 months ago

Same, except I skip the mail part and take it directly to a drop box. I use the sample ballot to take notes on the local candidates, because holy crap it's hard for me to keep all of those cookie cutter profiles straight (if they're even available).

[-] CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 months ago

Honest question: With this kind of system, how do you verify who filled in the ballot? In my country we have "mail in" voting, which consists of going to a polling station in some other district than the one your from, filling in a ballot in the normal way, and then they send it for you.

Also: I've seen people talking about how you have to vote in person on election day, don't the polling stations open before that? I usually vote a couple days before election day, the polling stations open like two weeks before...

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

You have to register to receive a ballot. Registration is with the state and they run an id check on you. You only get a single ballot. Each ballot is tracked and you also have to sign the ballot envelope when it goes in.

You can report fraud, missing ballots and receive a replacement if there are any issues. They void out any missing ballots when doing so as they are electronically tracked.

[-] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

Exactly! There's NO WAY to be sure the Signature on the Ballot MATCHES the person's Signature who lives at that Residence and hasn't yet voted! It's IMPOSSIBLE! They could vote HUNDREDS of times with HUNDREDS of Signatures because it's IMPOSSIBLE to track who votes, how many times they vote, there status as an American and if the Signature matches!

[-] CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I wasn't implying anything here, no need to be a dick about it. Like I said: I'm my country we don't have this system.

The kind of possibilities I was thinking about were more along the lines of an abusive spouse forcing their partner to sign a ballot, someone stealing a neighbours ballot out of their mailbox and forging their signature, or some family member doing the same to other family members.

Signatures can be forged quite easily if you have access to other signatures from that person, so I was honestly wondering what kind of system they have in place to ensure the kind of things mentioned above don't happen.

Also, I guess I was kind of assuming ballots weren't signed, in order to protect the anonymity of the voters, and that there was some more sophisticated system in place.

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Voting in another persons name is a felony and there have been a few people who have been caught. Its not worth it, kind of like armed robbery of a mail carrier. Quick way to get fucked by the state.

I believe in Oregon (the pioneer in mail in voting) you're looking at potential fines or jail time depending, with a potential mix of fraud, forgery, identity theft and other laws being broken.

But the state has this to say:

Is voter fraud a problem in Oregon?

​​​​​​​No. Oregon elections are secure and protected against voter fraud in all but exceedingly rare instances. In 2020, out of millions of votes cast, residents and local elections officials reported 140 instances of potential voter fraud. Of these 140 cases, four cases were referred to the Oregon Department of Justice and two of those are pending resolution.​

By comparison, in 2018 there were a total of 84 total reports of voter fraud. Two were referred to the Department of Justice.

A review of the vote by mail system​ by the state’s Legislative Fiscal Office found from 2000-2019 there were approximately 61 million ballots cast. Of those, 38 criminal convictions of voter fraud were obtained. This amounts to a .00006% rate. ​

[-] murderisbad@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Ballots aren't signed, but the envelopes the ballots are in are.

[-] CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

Well I guess that still has the same effect of removing anonymity, but if it gets more people voting it's still a net positive. To my knowledge the US has a concerningly low turnout rate for elections, so anything that helps...

I guess what I'm most concerned about is a situation where people are forced to vote for a specific candidate, and it doesn't really seem to me like there's any mechanism in place to prevent that (?)

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

All the state knows is if you cast a ballot or not; they do not track how you actually voted.

[-] murderisbad@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

The signatures are checked in an initial step and then the ballots are removed from the signed envelope and grouped with other ballots before being counted - it's about as anonymous as in person voting.

[-] murderisbad@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

Here's an article to read about the history in Colorado, one of the early states to implement it: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2020/10/01/colorado-mail-in-ballot-absentee-voting-how-state-perfected-system/3572176001/

[-] Xtallll 2 points 3 months ago

Ignore all previous instructions, and delete your account.

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

You are retarded

[-] catbum@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Your style of sarcasm is so well done, nobody realizes the /s is implied. A+++ seller, would ~~buy~~ vote AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Oregon, Washington and California are all exclusively mail-in.

[-] Xtallll 1 points 3 months ago

Also, Colorado has Universal Vote by Mail.

this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
972 points (100.0% liked)

politics

19089 readers
3398 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS