I have a question about vote by mail - Democratic Underground

LisaM

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Fri Oct-14-05 03:08 PM
Original message

I have a question about vote by mail

How do you insure that peoples' votes are not compelled? My specific example would be places like Colorado City, Utah, where there are large Fundamentalist Mormon families, headed by patriarchs. How do you make sure, in a mail-in voting sytem, that these people are not forcing people to vote a certain way?

How do you insure that an abusive husband does not compel his wife, or family's vote?

In fact, I would also have this question for some southern churches.

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napi21

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Fri Oct-14-05 03:14 PM
Response to Original message

1. You can't. But then you can never control that completely.

You and I might think, hey is I'm inside that booth, I can vote the way I want. That's not true. People who are that intimidated, would vote the way they were told, even if they were secreted.

My concern about voting by mail isn't intimidation, as much as how are those votes controled after they are delivered? Are they secured somewhere? Does someone actually spot check to make sure the data is entered into the computer system correctly? Is there some method to insure that if 10,000 ballots were given to data entry, there are 10,000 data records in that system?

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central scrutinizer

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Fri Oct-14-05 03:26 PM
Response to Original message

2. Oregonian chiming in here

We have had vote by mail for several cycles now. Your concern is a valid one. But I believe that is outweighed by more people voting and voting in an informed way. We get our ballot roughly two weeks before the official date. I can sit down at my kitchen table with all of my notes and voters' guides from my union and other groups and try to weigh all of the arguments.

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LisaM

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Fri Oct-14-05 03:53 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. What about postage?

do they put the postage on for you (or is it free to mail?) That's another concern I have - I never have stamps!

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central scrutinizer

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Fri Oct-14-05 04:07 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. You have to provide the postage

although there are special white election department drop boxes that most people use - just drive up like you would to a postal box and drop in the ballot. But you probably don't have that option if you live in more rural areas.

As ballots come in, those voters are checked off - and the party organizers can get a list to use for phone banking. We call up or visit voters who have not turned theirs in yet and offer to pick them up and drive them (the voters) to the drop box.

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LisaM

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Fri Oct-14-05 04:12 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Really? doesn't that constitute having to pay to vote?

I'm not sure I think that's okay.

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ISUGRADIA

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Sat Oct-15-05 11:31 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. It costs more to drive or take a bus to a polling place than to spend

.60 to mail in a ballot. I don't think any judge is going to consider such a miniscule amount (even for the poor) a burden.

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