Checking on your vote (USA centric)

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Patch Lady Susan here with a bit of an off-topic post.  Being in a country that lets all individual states run their own elections means that there’s
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Thanks for the references. I will be doing much reading. One of the main points is to favor reading candidate statements, (speeches or otherwise I assume), and propositions. With propositions, the actual verbiage for the law or state constitution is often provided. Good idea to read and understand that, although I will still value the analysis of those more versed in “lawyer-speak”.

Candidate statements, policy papers, and speeches are often written by others but of course considered approved by the candidate. In politics, there is more to judge than what the pundits, speechwriters or reporters write. How a candidate responds to questions, in real-time and especially adversarial ones and those regarding complex issues, is important. For candidates running for leadership positions, like POTUS, I think this is very important. The job of POTUS is 24/7 and probably one of the more complex jobs and one that takes a toll on the office holder’s health.

I hope the debates, (that’s what they call them), will have no softball questions for either candidate except for the obligatory opening and closing statements. Of course, do the reading but take a close look and listen to the person running for office. In all situations, not just the debates. I always consider if the candidate is available, engaging and provides more than rote answers.

For voting, I think in-person with a paper record is the most reliable. Even with COVID-19, it seems we can do that. Although, for high risk people I think they should apply for an Absentee ballot, ASAP. I agree that electronic is not a good idea. I am concerned the universal ballot could be a fiasco for states that have not done this before. Regarding terms, Absentee is a by-mail method, (with which I think all states have experience), but it is not the same as universal ballot.

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Excellent information Susan, something we all need to do in the US at this time.  Hope you and your family are staying safe in the smoky state of California.

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Excellent, excellent information and advice Susan. Bravo and many thanks! But I cannot stress enough that the most important thing is to actually VOTE, no matter how you go about doing it. I personally recommend voting early and in person, if your state allows that. Or you can vote absentee or otherwise by mail; but make sure that you complete that process at least one week before election day (11/03/2020) to allow for your ballot to arrive through the postal service by election day. You cannot rely on it being correctly postmarked, since that doesn’t always get done (the postmark). Sadly, only 89% of eligible voters in America are even registered to vote (the other 11% won’t register for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with not wanting to be found); and only two-thirds of eligible voters even bother voting even in a so-called high turnout election, like in 2008. Apathy and complacency are the enemies of a functioning representative democratic republic. Two-thirds voter turnout should be considered the minimum acceptable level of voter turnout, not the maximum. So everyone please vote!

 

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Susan
When I was living in SF the League of Women Voters always sent a pamphlet out giving a break down of the issues and candidates. Do they still do that?

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Susan, thank you for your reminder of our voting responsibility.  I lived in  California for many years.  Because I was usually on the road for work,  I had a “permanent absentee” ballot, which meant that I received it reasonably in advance of the election, filled out the ballot, put that in one envelope, then put that envelope in to a second envelope which had my signature.  Finally, I  either mailed it off OR hand delivered it to the county elections office if I was in the mood for a drive.   For decades, we never worried about fraud.

And, I still do not worry about fraud.  We moved to  Texas 5 years ago.  Here, you can have a mail ballot when you certify that you are over 65, disabled, or away from your county during early voting and on election day.  That certification must be renewed each year.

If memory serves, the in-person voting here does have a paper trail:

• you walk in to the polling place, show ID, and sign in on a large book
• your signature is examined by a poll worker and compared to what they have on file
• they give you a paper ballot, and I believe it has a serial number on it, tied to the line where you signed (someone please correct me if my recollection is faulty here)
• the poll worker guides you over to a machine, where you insert the ballot
• next, make your choices on the screen, and the machine marks the paper ballot
• eject the ballot and go to a second machine which scans those marks
• eject the ballot and put the paper into a slot on a very large lockbox (it is not a shredder)
• that box is transported at the end of the day and stored somewhere in case of an audit

Of course procedures are different in other states.

We live in interesting times.

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[OscarCP]

Newly implemented measures that ultimately affect mail processing and delivery, ordered by the recently appointed US Postmaster General, are creating some delays in mail delivery. The measures have been paused until after the elections, following complaints by members of the public and some action in Congress, but those already implemented shall not be reversed, so some delays will keep happening.

That, added to many people’s lack of previous experience with voting by mail, as well as those individuals that, like me, six times out of ten make some mistakes when filling out a form, no matter how many times they have done this already, will result in some confusion possibly leading to more annulled votes than usual.

So it is probably going to be messy and may even lead to much litigation in the courts disputing results, perhaps with the US Supreme Court getting involved at some point. Or perhaps not: but I’m not holding my breath. One thing to hope for is that this causes an equal enough distribution of the annulled votes for both parties that benefits neither. But even then, if results are very close, the workings of the electoral College might result in the Presidency being awarded to the candidate with a minority of the popular vote. So, if most people vote by mail, as it is otherwise a prudent thing to do under the current pandemic conditions, things may not work out as well as usual.

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by OscarCP.

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Quite a few states, like PA for instance, do not allow mailed-in votes to be officially counted until the morning of election day. This election in November will demonstrate why that policy may not be an especially good one. Those states mark the voter as having voted in their official election roles when they determine that the mail-in ballot has been completed and received in good order; but HOW they voted is not recorded until election day. Other states like Florida allow votes to be counted when received and officially “accepted” as valid and complete. One of the political parties votes two-thirds by mail and one-third in person; while the other political party typically does the reverse. So while we the people may know by midnight on November 3rd (eastern time) how Florida voted, we likely will not know until days later how states like PA and others that by law cannot begin counting mailed in ballots until election day have voted – maybe not even until the end of that week. You can be sure that the candidate who is ahead in the count on election day at midnight local time will demand that the counting stop while he’s ahead, even though many thousands of legitimate mailed in ballots have still to be counted, and even though local state laws are being complied with to the letter. By federal law and Constitutional Amendment, the states actually have until December 13th this year to certify which slate of electors (in other words, who won the state) will be sent to vote for the electoral college on December 19th. But I fully expect that there will be those who will use any and all delays to cause controversy and perhaps even unrest.

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wavy

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Quote from the original text: “The bad guys are REALLY trying to get into accounts having to do with the UK and USA elections.  And they are really using social media to sway and influence.”

Thanks Mrs Susan, the are good links to read and make up better your mind. Camebridge Analytica scandal was only a small part of the “voters_influencing_game”

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I love this timely post, Susan.

I’ll add one comment: Not only look at what candidates have written, but also look at what they have done in their whole lives. “By their works ye shall know them.”

(Matthew 7:16, alternative translation)

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wavy

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