WP: Record Numbers Casting Absentee Ballots in Va. (Esp. Northern)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201590.html

Voters across Virginia are casting absentee ballots in record numbers this year, signaling not only the growing popularity of early voting in busy lives but also the likelihood of heavy turnout Tuesday, state and local election officials said yesterday.

More than 114,000 voters have requested absentee ballots or voted early in person, according to the State Board of Elections. That compares with 44,500 who voted absentee in 2002, the last time there were midterm federal elections.

The trend is pronounced in Northern Virginia jurisdictions. In Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington counties and in Alexandria, the number of absentee voters is on track to more than double over 2002, local election officials said.

In populous, Democrat-leaning Northern Virginia, where a heavy turnout could determine the outcome statewide in the tight U.S. Senate race, the absentee numbers could be good news for Democrat James Webb, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. George Allen.

"It's a very close race," said Linda Lindberg, Arlington's general registrar. "People feel very strongly about both the Senate race and the . . . constitutional amendment" proposing to ban same-sex marriage.

[olshak]

1. Good news...

if it is heavy in NoVa. Means Dems want their votes actually counted!

[lanlady]

2. hopeful sign for Webb

I'm thinking it's all the deployed military people voting for him. Can't imagine them getting all fired up about voting for Senator Macaca.

[Peace Patriot]

3. HEADS UP...everybody! BragF, DU Election Forum! This is a VOTERS REVOLT!

It's what we've all been waiting for, and dreaming of. PLEASE SEE what's happening here. Ordinary citizens are pointing us to the STRATEGY we so badly need to achieve transparent, verifiable vote counting. They are handing it to us on a silver platter!

I've been yelling about this for months--but many at DU come back at me with all the insecurity of AB voting. They just don't get it! AB votes are more or less as secure as optiscan votes (not very), but people are choosing AB voting BECAUSE they don't want to vote on the rigged ELECTRONIC machines! They are BOYCOTTING the machines!

This may not get us accurate vote counts. We know the perils of any kind of voting, including AB voting, in this corrupt environment. But that ISN'T THE POINT. The point is that people are onto the rigged system, and are trying to get around it!

And if we can get out in front of this huge voter revolt, and LEAD it, we can turn it into an EFFECTIVE election reform STRATEGY. Here's how: Organize these Absentee Ballot voters--which is now a huge but dispersed, unorganized effort on the part of individuals to get their votes counted--and help this huge pressure group to force LOCAL election officials to, a) HAND-COUNT Absentee Ballot votes, and b) POST the results BEFORE any electronics are involved.

These two simple, common sense demands can give us a PAPER BALLOT SYSTEM BY DEFAULT. We don't have to topple Diebold and ES&S--two truly badass and dangerous corporations--nor even remove all their corrupt defenders in election offices and legislatures. This is a BACKDOOR strategy, that goes around all that entrenched corruption. And we have the NUMBERS. That is very clear. Absentee Ballot voting is up to 50% to 60% of the vote, and has quintupled, in some places. It has greatly increased all over the nation, in direct proportion to the cancerous spread of rigged electronic voting machines.

I began spotting the corporate "spin" on this about two weeks ago--NYT, AP and Sacramento Bee articles (with almost identical wording) attributing the huge increase in AB voting to voters choosing "convenience." That is bullshit. They never even MENTION the possibility that voters DON'T TRUST the electronic voting machines--machines run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations. People have spread the word among themselves, and have taken action on their own--by getting Absentee Ballots--to avoid voting on the machines, to protest these non-transparent conditions, and to register a huge "vote of no confidence" in the results of this rigged system. The corporate toady news organizations KNOW the potential power of this huge voter revolt. They are trying to pre-empt it and keep it UN-organized, so that it will have no influence.

WE, in the election reform movement, can make the difference. We can give this huge, dissident voter base A VOICE. COUNT THEIR AB VOTES PROPERLY! HEED THEIR DESIRE FOR HAND-COUNTING INDEPENDENT OF THE MACHINES! HEAR THEM! And you will be thrown out of your election office fiefdom if you don't! --because this is at least half of the voters!

We can have all the exposes of Diebold & brethren that we could ever desire--and even see people go to jail--and STILL be stuck with rigged electronics in our voting system. I have no faith in a Dem Congress to change this in any fundamental way. Too many Dem and Repub election officials and legislators have been impacted by these big e-voting contracts (billions of dollars involved). And too many of our Dems our beholden to the Corporate Rulers, AND to Diebold/ES&S et al. We need a LOCAL strategy, and I think this it is: COUNT the AB votes PROPERLY. And, if they ARE counted properly, EVERYONE will then vote by AB, in order to GET their votes counted. The machines will get dumped by attrition--and much quicker--than by the far iffier route of Congressional fiat (not gonna happen, and has "poison pill" dangers anyway), lawsuits, exposes, pressure on MANY state legislators, governors, etc., etc., etc. All this is a campaign. It is NOT a strategy. How do we get there--to TRANSPARENT vote counting? I think ordinary citizens are telling us how. We just have help them take it to the next step. Organize!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

4. Spread the word!! Boycott the machines - Vote absentee!

This is a great idea. I have been thinking about this for weeks, and am going to pick up my absentee ballot Monday.