Now if only all of the states provided such an option. Here's what it looks like in the rest of the country: I'm also hearing from folks in the Midwest and elsewhere that mail-in voting requires postage. This was news to me, because California ballots are post-paid. Do we need a separate thread for that?
That’s a new thing in CA, though. I think the first election we had that universally was 2016 or 2018 (some counties might have prepaid postage before that).
Then there's this: Mail-in ballots require additional stamps and will not be counted if affixed postage is insufficient. Rating Mixture About this rating What's True Some mail-in ballots require additional postage, and some election boards have had difficulty communicating the circumstance due to variations between jurisdictions. What's False The additional postage requirement is not universal for all mail-in ballots in every state, and ballots lacking proper postage may or may not be counted. Ballots I've seen from other states indicate "First Class Postage Required." It doesn't say how much first-class postage. Allegedly if postage is incomplete or absent, the ballot will still go through, but the inequities are disconcerting. Is it "voter fraud" when it's perpetrated by TPTB? I'm sure @T.R will be happy to address this.
I always have to put postage on my ballot. (Well, on the envelope containing the ballot...) Why can't the French post-office recognize that Michigan elections are important and send it over there for free?
My son took my ballot to the post office, so ... when I asked, he said no postage was required and nothing additional necessary. That's in Wisconsin. After entering my personal data, these are the results. Yea ..., those dates sound correct.
Haven't gotten my ballot yet, and I'm still waffling on some of the propositions. Light year - there are only 12 of them this time.
Before WA officially went to prepaid, the dirty secret was that the Post Office would still deliver the ballot and just bill King County Elections. Not sure if there was a contract for that or if it would apply to other states.
Also we just went prepaid postage a few elections ago. Here’s the formula for getting it passed in your state. Push for prepaid at the state level. Get pushback from Republicans for being too expensive and having no effect on turnout. Give up and have your most urban counties decide to prepay their own ballots. Watch Republicans rush to pass statewide prepaid. Amazingly it turns out it isn’t too expensive and DOES boost turnout.
Just got the paperwork in today to request a mail-in ballot. I think the whole state has been sent them. I'm not really sure if I want to vote by mail. I think i'd much rather go to my polling place to vote.
That dish of mints and Jolly Ranchers that the old lady who keeps the name book puts out is something he really looks forward to. It's worth the 'rona risk.
They give out mints and Jolly Ranchers? Damn. I've been cheated. Only thing the in-person poll workers every gave me was a friendly attitude. The coolest thing, though, was the venue for 2008. My local polling place was the synagogue around the corner from me. I literally walked out my back door, through the alley, and I was there. Beautiful venue - high arched ceilings, marble everywhere. But the coolest thing was the mother and daughter standing behind me. The kid was 18 and it was her first vote. She was literally hopping up and down with excitement. Nothing can replace that memory. They changed the polling place in 2016 to the basement of a local nursing home. Crowded, annoying, and the lines were long enough - out in the sun, and me without either sunblock or a parasol - to make me decide to vote by mail no matter who was running. Ain't risking basal-cell skin cancer for any candidate. Mail-in voting FTW!
My state did a pretty shitty job with it during the primaries. (it wasnt the only one) I have an inherent mistrust of putting something important like that in the hands of a 3rd party. I'm seeing things about ballots being disqualified due to things like signatures not matching what they have on file. No, Id much rather just mask up and go down to my polling place.
Why is that a problem? It is a legal requirement for validating just about any contract, even something as simple and straightforward as signing a check. Personally, I would be less sure about the validity of absentee voting if non-matching signatures didn't invalidate (or at least require verification) the ballot. Otherwise, anyone could vote in my place, and claim they were me.
You want to know something scary about living and banking in a small town? For years, I've been throwing my bank curve balls to see if they ever check the signature on checks. For instance, the last check I wrote, I signed it, "Captain Steve Rogers (USA Ret.)." It, like all the others, went through without a hitch. I know the lady who is over that sort of thing at my bank. Heck, everyone knows her. A few years ago, I mentioned in passing that I had been doing that and she told me she knew about it. She said it really bugged her because she had to check every single one of them manually because the system kicked it out. But, she said she knew my handwriting and even the style of pen I used, so instead of calling me she would just process them and send them through. She just didn't want to bust my chops about it in a social setting. So, here I was thinking the bank was being lax and I really uncovered a woman who can likely forge any signature in town.
I agree, I think we need strong ID laws for voting to prevent fraud. I'd prefer that a poll worker check my drivers license before handing me a ballot over my ballot getting tosses after the polls close because I've shattered every bone in my hand and my signatures never match.
I scanned my drivers license on the voter website. Then they sent me a ballot. If I vote in person, the absentee ballot is void and they scan the same drivers license.
"Rich" persons problem. I don't know if you're rich and don't care, but I do know that for members of the underclass getting and keeping a driver's license is a time and money suck beyond the comprehension of people who have regular jobs and fixed addresses. But of course you'll dismiss that, because you don't recognize that anyone has a different life experience than you do.
I keep reading your words in an attempt to find a point. Are you trying to chastise me because I have a drivers license? Are you attempting to make an argument that because a small percent of the population that is mentally ill and another small percent of the population just struggle with functioning in society and can't get a drivers license or other form of ID that they shouldnt be required to vote? For the former I would say your just a smug, fart sniffing asshole. For the latter I would like to quote Samuel Clements. "Should I be denied a steak because a baby could not chew one?" If you have people who cannot obtain an I.D. for means outside of a purely shitty economic situation, (and I do believe that your argument discounts the working poor,) that is to say, the aforementioned people with mental illness or those who are just unwilling, do they even vote? Are the mentally ill even aware of the elections, and would the unwilling even bother? You're discussing a fraction of a percent of demographics that are a fraction of a percent of the population.
You accuse others intolerance, but it is you who assumes someone without economic means to obtain or need a drivers license is mentally deficient in some manner. Please explain how economic ability or need to obtain a drivers license is somehow correlated to some sort of mental deficiency.
Reading comprehension, do you have it? I specifically seperated the mentally ill from the unwilling/able.
Why does it need to be unwilling or unable? What part of “other people have experiences in life that which have no experience or knowledge” that you don’t get?
I have posted, a couple times now, how signature verification can work. I’ve even posted a screenshot from my ballot tracker that had info about signature verification. Now maybe your state doesn’t do it right, but it doesn’t have to be a problem.
Well, what else is there then? Either they won't or can't. You have nothing, so you say "well what about the magic invisible people you know nothing about so your point is invalid". Mine doesn't, hopefully yours works and is as bullet proof as it seems. I'm still voting in person.
