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Early Voting
Commenter ‘Interested’ informed me that he just casted an ‘early vote’. To be honest, I am not familiar with this concept. Anyone else voting early as well? What were your experiences? And, if you like to share, how did you vote?
P.S. ‘Interested’ also informed me that they made it quite difficult for him to cast his vote. In his opinion, purposefully. What did they do?
They did not open the door for him and did not offer him a cup of coffee.
Unacceptable!
Just kidding of course.
20 Responses to “Early Voting”
I live in Oregon..it is a vote by mail state. As soon as the ballots get here in the mail, we in this household vote. Sometimes a couple weeks before Election Day.
The ballots are paper ballots with a secrecy envelope and are mailed back to the County clerk. I love it.
In California, early votes are treated as absentee votes — eg, you go into some place the county election department has set up and vote a ballot which is counted as an early absentee ballot.
This has become quite common in recent years.
Aphrael and Capelza: what are the benefits of voting early if I may ask?
Capelza: wow, that’s truly the old fashioned way isn’t it?
I’m uncomfortable with early voting for one simple reason – you don’t get to learn everything available before you make your vote. Imagine if you’re a “values voter” and you found out about Rep. Foley after you cast your early vote – you might find that you voted for the wrong person given Foley’s actions, and that you’d have voted differently had you had “all the facts.”
Of course, this is exactly why both the major parties in the U.S. love early voting – it locks your vote in and eliminates the chance of a last-minute scandal derailing the candidate.
This year, I’m a little more torn than usual, because we have electronic voting using touch-screens here in my part of Colorado, and I’m more than a little nervous about using a touch-screen voting machine.
Michael: it allows people who can’t manage to get to a precinct polling place on election day to vote.
Increasingly, requesting an absentee ballot is a technique to ensure that one has a paper ballot rather than a Diebold machine. I volunteer on Election Day and my absentee ballot is right here.
Michael, Brian…I have found that all the tryly nasty stuff is already “out there” before Election Day. In fact I tend to tune out the last few days before the election because the hyperbole and negativity is just too much.
If politicians and the public survive by the “October suprise” then they can get over it.
One benefit, certainly is that the “long lines” that plagued Ohio and other places trying to cram all the voters in on one day doesn’t happen.
I guess it is “old fashioned”..paper ballots, ones that can be recounted if needed. No hanging chads, either! A #2 pencil and time to sit down with a cup of coffee and really think about who and what you are voting for.
The paper ballots do not have to be turned in early. They can be returned to the clerk’s office until the end of voting on Election Day. By hand if you prefer.
I understand that completely. All the important information is out there, before election day, you can bet on it. What’s going to ‘surface’ in the days just before election day is trivial at best mostly.
Brian,
Are you worried about leaving fingerprints for some reason?
)
Seriously, as an engineer, I find this whole controversy over voting methods just silly. In local elections last year, I voted electronically for the first time and was pleased to note multiple checks. While selecting candidates, I had to confirm my selections twice, including at the end (something not possible with paper ballots). And along with the electronic ballot was a paper copy that remained with the electioneers. If the paper copy matches the electronic numbers, everything is cool. The problem comes in the transfer of the totals where there is too much reliance on a single source. Is it really a big deal to check the final tally by comparing a hands-off automatic electronic transfer against local results collected off-line(unhackable)? Then the only chance for corruption is for a local official to both hack in to the registrars data base AND falsify precinct tallies. If there is serious concern over new electronic technologies, simply scan or hand count the paper copies just like we have been doing for decades and look at the electronic transfer as a supplemental confirmation. And if a state purchases an electronic voting machine that CAN be altered, then shame on the citizens of that state for electing officials (the old-fashioned way) that can get suckered into 50+ year-old technology.
Chris,
I’m an EE myself, and I don’t have inherent problems voting electronically. The issue I have is the lack of a paper trail with too many machines used locally in CO and the lack of reasonable security on the machines. I had no issues last time I voted because I used an optical scanner machine where a paper trail existed. I found out this election season that my county doesn’t use optical scanners (I moved since last election), and the machines that my county uses don’t even have the option to print a paper receipt. THAT’s what makes me nervous.
There is no such thing as perfect security, and stupid little things like election workers not resetting the default passwords leave security holes the size of Mack trucks. I’ve worked in three different industries now, and it’s not as if it’s hard to put reasonable “idiot-proofing” measures into place. You know, things like not allowing anyone to actually log into a touch-screen voting machine without first changing the default password.
I expect that my voting this year will go off just fine, and I expect to have a pleasant enough experience with the process that I’ll worry much less next time. But right now I’m concerned enough to be more watchful than I might otherwise be.
Yup, today was the first day, first 2 hrs into available early voting.
Now I got an email talking about the voting season – by the city. But I thought AHAA! What if I did not have a computer? So I called the number I got out of the phone book and they answered on the 2nd ring. Well, we shall just find out when we get there then.
Easy to locate – the city setup a website with viewable or printable locations – plus the woman on the phone gave me the same locations. I drove there, and held one eye shut but still saw the huge “VOTE HERE” banner.
After I overcame being oppressed by opening my own door. And there was no lines, went to the machine, there were clear instructions (although I did have to read). Voting went as smooth as ever. Got done – card popped out.
However, and I KNEW I’d find where they’re trying to stifle my vote! – I had to ask who wanted the card. – Course that was after I had voted and every worker offered to take it from my hand, and I walked out (door open this time).
And another outrageous thing – they had free candy at the door as you leave! I do not eat sweets. Between needing to open my own door, no coffee, and free candy offerings…… oh the humanity. (that was a joke).
But seriously – this election season is over for me. – Thankfully. I really enjoy the early voting, no lines, no mess, and as ever – the individuals are helpful if you need it.
Michael, I don’t bet on all the information being “out there,” and I won’t. There are precious few votes I can make up my mind on 100% before election day, and none of them are votes for people (state constitutional amendments and referrenda only). I admit that I can’t think of a single case where something came to light in the last week of an election season that ultimately changed my vote, but if I’ve already voted, then I cannot change my mind even if I wanted to.
It’s a matter of remaining as open-minded and flexible as possible for as long as possible.
Brian,
You expressed my concerns as a software engineer quite well. Where is the paper trail? No software system is 100% secure and security holes like a default admin password that is not required to be changed create huge issues.
If there were always a hard copy available for recounts, I’d feel a lot more secure. However, when you have a (in some cases easily) hackable system and the only way to verify counts is within that system, there is no way to discount the possibility of an undetected hack. The only verification of the numbers are held within the potentially hacked system. This is a very inherent flaw that should have been thought of and dealt with before these machines made their way into polling locations.
My local polling location still has a paper trail and counts votes via an optical scanner. If it didn’t, I’d consider casting an absentee ballot so I could have my own paper trail.
Michael, my father and I both vote early. We got our ballots by mail some time ago. We have to send them in soon, I guess so that they reach their destination in time for counting. Doesn’t matter who I vote for though, I live in Pelosi’s district, and, short of her death, I can think of very little that would unseat her.
interested,
Did they offer any sugar free candies? If not, what blatant discrimination against the diabetic vote! They are probably trying to induce diabetic comas to prevent these people from voting for the candidate of their choice.
C.Stanley
lol, we should go out and make a law against polling workers bringing in candy. You know, since one person cannot enjoy it – lets remove it for all!
MvdG:
You’ll also find that the Western US States tend to accept early votes because those states also have lots of ballot initiatives to read.
If it takes 30 minutes to read the ballot they ought to at least let you do it at home!
Holly: in California, all precincts will have some number of paper ballots available. Precinct workers are not allowed to advertise this fact, but they will be there, if you want them.
California also requires a voter-verified paper trail for all electronic balloting; when I tested this during my poll worker training class, it worked fine.
Colorado has a huge ballot this year, and that coupled with the recent judge’s ruling against the Secretary of State’s office in a suit regarding the security of electronic voting machines has everyone saying “vote absentee” and “vote early.”
Thankfully Colorado mandates a votor information guide (known as the Colorado Blue Book) be mailed to every home and be available for pick-up at city, county, and state offices. This lets voters build up a cheat-sheet of how they expect to vote before the election so the vote on election day goes faster. It doesn’t help with everything (we have a weird system of handling judges in Colorad, and it’s hard to find data on judges, for example), but it sure speeds up the process.
Chris Bell, Brian…that’s a very good point about the numerous iniatives (we call them measures).
Sometimes the voter’s pamphlet here in Oregon is a book there is so much stuff in it.
It is much more useful to be able to sit at home and review the various iniatives instead of trying to remember them as numbers in a voting booth.