Voter watchdog says it's uncovered absentee ballot fraud in Florida, New York

A poll tax on people who have the means to travel abroad? Cry me a river.

Anyway, US bases, consulates, and embassies abroad could provide the service to US citizens for free. Easy solution.

I have to drive to the polls, so I burn gas and that costs me money. That's a poll tax!!!

Or a poll tax to require a photo ID that you pretty much have to have for a number of activities of daily living?

Cry me a damned ocean!

Do you honestly believe these voter ID laws have anything to do with voter fraud?

Perhaps in socialist France, but here in America, we pay for a notarized document. And what of the people in places with less civilization, fewer services? Can we guarantee notary services to all absentee voters just because it is available to you?

We haven't had it right since the start because despite what you hear from our more nationalistic countrymen, our founders were not infallible demi-gods. For a lot of our history, most of the people living here could not vote. But we're working on it! See: the 15th Amendment, the 19th Amendment, the 23rd Amendment, the 24th Amendment (particularly relevant to this discussion), the 26th Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (also relevant). It's good to have goals to work towards.

You should demand a self-addressed stamped envelope when you receive your absentee ballot.

And if he's denied an absentee ballot, he should demand reimbursement for his plane fare to come back to the States and vote in person.

So vote absentee.

I wonder if these voter watchdogs will be as effective as the voter watchdogs who delivered a list of 30,000 dead voters to officials in North Carolina, of whom 30,000 turned out to be alive.

Is that not allowed in Michigan either in person or with mail in?

I asked b/c I didn't think the filling in part was required to be the person voting (how else would the blind or other physically handicapped vote) at least in Washington.

Then I got home and checked the mail and saw that my wife's ballot had arrived (they still have her marked for an 'Overseas or Service Ballot' so she gets hers early). Opening it I read through it and from what I saw the only requirements is that the person the ballot is for be the person that opens it (oops... ) and the person that signs it. And the signature is not that you were the person filling out the ballot, but just that you are the person the ballot belongs to and that you are eligible to vote.

Nice job, you just doubled the instances of voter fraud in 2012.

No. Because if republican government and liberty are worth having, they're worth getting off of your ass and making some effort.

And to hell with what the constitution says, eh?

Now you're talking!

I do believe I will write your name in for president. I like your ideas!

I do not think Michigan allows non-citizens to vote. Why would you think it does?

One of the things that I have to "swear or affirm under penalty of perjury" is that I am a U.S. citizen and another is that I did not let anyone see me vote (unless it was someone who assisted me in voting, and in that case they can only help me, they can't influence my choice in how I vote or help me decide). So it is made very clear that I not only can't let my wife vote for me, I can't even show her the ballot once it's filled out.

Does Oregon allow non-citizens to vote? That would be extremely strange.

A non-citizen cannot get a ballot, but I've seen nothing to indicate that they couldn't fill out or help fill out a citizens ballot. According to your post that is not allowed in Michigan. Interesting.

A non-citizen could help me vote (if I was blind, for example), but could not vote (i.e., make the choices) in my place.

I have a very hard time believing other states do not have the same rules.

Should people not be able to ask advice on who to vote for? How is using an endorsement list to pick a candidate any different from asking a person?

Back in the good old days, you were handed a list at the front door. After voting, you brought the list to the local tavern for hour free beer.

I use lists today. Unless you are a partisan who votes straight ticket, or someone who spends WWWWAAAAYYYYYY too much time with this shit lists are the only way to know where people down the ticket stand. I'll have four or five lists from issue groups I care about and publications worth listening too and I'll compare and contrast the candidates that way. Even then sometimes I gotta go to the net.

There's nothing wrong with that. I'm talking about lists disguised as voting instructions, along with the implicit promise of a free beer if you use the list to inform your voting.

Where people stand doesn't matter as much as how they'll actually vote and what they'll actually sign, and of all the votes a legislator casts the most important vote is the leadership vote which allows one side or the other to set the agenda and control the legislative process. Besides, party discipline and party ideological coherence are much greater than they used to be--i.e. Mike Castle was to the right of Ben Nelson when it came to their actual votes.

Unless you're a single issue voter and leadership of the legislature isn't in doubt, there's no reason ever not to vote a party line in legislative elections. That letter next to a legislator's name is decisive about the leadership vote and far and away the most reliable piece of information about how he or she will vote in general, far more reliable than any list you may have. Executive elections allow more potential leeway for rational party line departures, but that still mostly happens when one party doesn't bother putting up a real candidate to meaningfully contest the election.

55 posts in and Maud hasn't told us its Obama's fault yet.........

So we need to cater to people living outside the US in the jungle or the desert?

Please quote where the Constitution talks about the right to vote absentee.

As I'm sure you know, there is a huge difference between asking people for advice, and letting them vote for you.

You seem to be making up spurious arguments to obscure the fact that you implied it was strange that Michigan does not allow non-citizens to vote. Spin it how you want, no state knowingly allows non-citizens to vote.

Is there really? What is the 'huge difference' between my wife asking me who to vote for and say her using my ballot as a guide? Or her copying my ballot and me just filling it in for her?

Negative Ghostrider. I thought I might not have been clear enough initially, which is why I followed up with another post making my point abundantly clear: http://www.wordforge.net/showpost.php?p=2386663&postcount=42

Please reread it and get back to me if you are still having problems understanding me.

31 questionable votes out of over 17 million cast in the last election cycle in those two ststes?? Doesn't sound like a substantial problem to me....

Are you serious?