A reader posted this comment below:
Once again (4th time in 4 years) King County elections has failed to get me my ballot on time.If you have any problems voting, especially voting by mail -- didn't get your ballot, ballot wrongly rejected for "signature mismatch", etc. , the person to blame is Councilman Bob Ferguson. It was his idea to both force everybody to vote by mail and to obstruct I-25 in the interest of "stability". Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 05, 2007 06:09 PM | Email ThisDespite being on their list. and sending in an online request, and making on phone call- where I was told "we can't promise you anything" when I stressed that I really wanted to vote this election.
Last year of course I made 2 personal visits to the Election Office in Seattle in September before leaving the State and they still messed up and didn't get me my ballot until 2 days before the election (and only after I made 2 phone calls).
Put a checkbox on the ballot:
_ Make my vote public. Make it available with my name, address and email on a publically available website.
Then you can confirm your vote. And you can confirm other votes and do the math yourself.
The Senate and House members cast their votes in public.
Citizens should as well.
That is the insidious and corrupt problem with dems wanting all mail voting. Their supporters come from the lower, more poorly educated groups. Those more likely to engage in criminal behavior, and less likely to care about the niceities of one person one vote. The generally more affluent and law abiding republicans are less likely to engage in criminal vote selling or double voting. They have more to lose if they are caught, and are less inclined to engage in that kind of corrupt behavior.
Hairy
Posted by: Hairy Buddah on November 5, 2007 06:41 PMWe would see a higher percentage of requests from precincts that historical vote democrat rather than republican wouldn't we? Seems like an easy thesis to test.
Republicans more law abiding? Hmm, how do you know that?
Posted by: BA on November 5, 2007 07:56 PMMy ballot went to a home in Everett where I've never lived. The only reason I know this, the fine people there called me to tell me it was there. I called the election office and they said I had a change of address??? Ahhh no. I have lived the the same house since 1995.
Dummies!
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 6, 2007 06:28 AMThis time, I noticed they spelled her name wrong- the t in swatter came out as an l, so I looked her up under swalter and sure enough, the ballot was received. It'll be interesting how many times we have to go through the gyrations to get it fixed.
Her handwriting is worse than a doctors, so no way would the incorrect spelling be caught in a handwriting check.
Posted by: swatter on November 6, 2007 08:32 AMJohn Bailo: HELL NO. A thousand times HELL NO. Secret voting is a hallmark of the democratic process.
(BTW, this is one of the reasons why all-mail balloting is terrible: it allows someone to pay you, or threaten you, to vote a certain way, and be certain you did so. They can be there as you fill out the ballot, seal it, and mail it. This is an acceptable potential when absentee voting is limited to those who require it in order to vote at all, but it is not acceptable when a majority of voters -- let alone all -- are voting absentee. Someone with enough money can literally buy a lot of votes, which is not possible in poll voting.)
Posted by: pudge on November 6, 2007 08:53 AMWow... I got quoted on the first page. Yeah... right now I'm waiting for the mail to arrive so I can fill out my ballot and then rush it to the Post Office in time to get to post marked before midnight. Hopefully my ballot will come today- but knowing my luck it won't arrive until tomorrow.
Posted by: Cicero on November 6, 2007 02:47 PM