Political Cortex: CA: Vote by Mail

CA: Vote by Mail

By rba
01/15/2006 10:26:15 AM EST

After all the electronic voting nonsense, some registrars may be getting it right SacBee [reg. req'd]):

Registrars want total vote-by-mail election
By Kevin Yamamura -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, January 15, 2006
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee
Cutting-edge electronic voting was supposed to solve ballot-box flaws in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. But now some California registrars believe that good old-fashioned snail mail is the best way to go.
[edit]
The registrars point to a successful mail-ballot system in Oregon and the fact that most counties in Washington state now do the same.
California is heading in that direction, considering that nearly two in five voters statewide used absentee ballots for the 2005 special election. The state has seen a surge in mail ballots since a permanent absentee voter program took effect four years ago.

No machine, no problem.

: politics, HAVA, voting, luddites

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CA: Vote by Mail | 4 comments (4 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

I've been voting absentee for years (none / 0)

And I'm in California. Our district 10 years ago had a county supervisor race that came down to (I think?) seven votes, and there was recount after recount after recount. My babysitter at the time even had to go in for some reason and testify to her vote.

That cured me -- I fill out my ballot and take a Xerox before I walk it in to a precinct. Paranoid? Probably. But after spending hundreds of hours in an election year trying to get Dem votes out of neighbors, friends, whoever, I want to make damn sure at least my individual vote counts.

by SusanG on 01/15/2006 11:23:18 PM EST

Susan (none / 0)

Paper ballots like opti-scan are the best -- BUT the swell of absentee and mail-in going on across many states is really bad news. I'll tell you why.

It turns out that the use of any old assorted writing utensil from your home makes the reading of the mark very, very iffy. This is true especially with older scanners that are in place in many counties, such as the Optech IV-C model and the Optech III-P Eagle sold by both ES&S and Sequoia(acquired by Smartmatic) [models sold by both companies as permitted by a DoJ consent agreement].

The mailed ballots translate to huge numbers of undervotes in races and entire blank ballots, I'm talking about 100s and 1000s in some counties. A state representative race in Maricopa County, Az in 2004 and problems in Colorado in 2005 are bringing this to light.

I also jumped off of this in my diary here at politicalcortex, "Yes Virginia, there's a problem with the absentee ballots" talking about December's recount of Deeds vs McDonnell in Virginia.

by joan reports on 02/01/2006 12:51:56 AM EST

[ Parent ]

: If I didn't make it clear, the variety (none / 0)

of pens mean the ink of the mark may not be picked up because of a lack of control over types of ink or pigment.
Some elections supervisors – and in the diary I mentioned above, a Sequoia spokesperson as well – are well aware of the shortcoming.
by joan reports on 02/01/2006 12:56:22 AM EST

[ Parent ]