Florida: Votes by absentee ballot expected to soar

[kskiska]

A close election could put such ballots at the center of any lawsuits, some say.

Like a Baptist minister, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler has been preaching the evils of touch-screen voting and the eternal damnation that will befall the Democratic Party if the faithful don't cast absentee ballots in the upcoming fall elections.

"It's the only way to create a paper record of your ballot," Wexler, D-Boca Raton, implores voters at meetings throughout Palm Beach County.

And party loyalists apparently believe.

(snip)

This week, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore ordered 5,000 more absentee ballot request forms after the 75,000 she previously ordered were snatched up.

"Just to give you an idea, in the last election we ordered 50,000 and had tons left over," she said of the 2000 presidential election, which drew a record 700,000 absentee ballots statewide.

more…
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2004/07/23/m1a_ballots__0723.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Folks I know are voting early

because in Arkansas, you can do that-go to the courthouse and mark your ballot there. Since we have scanners and PAPER ballots in my county, I feel safe that way...its wondering if and when the Repukes try cancelling the election that's got me concerned.

[JuniperLea]

2. i'm on permanent california

absentee ballot status! no one is going to claim my chads are hanging, dimpled, pregnant or any other silly thing.

[SoCalDem]

3. Here's the problem.. If the ballots are counted IF the race is close

you could be shooting yourself in the foot.. If MOST Dems, use absentee, and * "wins" by an amount more than would trigger a "recount", would the ballots even BE counted???


Better read the fine print..:(

[Florida_Geek]

4. In florida they are counted before the election for

the early people. On ones counted late is the last minute ballots.

[JuniperLea]

5. seems to me

the fine print indicated they were counted regardless.

[fishnfla]

6. i'm voting by absentee and telling evryone else to as well eom

[mom cat]

8. Me to. That will free up election day for poll watching.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Absentee Ballots Help to Counter Two Threats to Voting

The possibility of targeted "terror" alerts as well as police and
repub "poll watcher" intimidation to suppress
urban votes is a particularly potent threat.

In areas using touchscreen machines, absentee ballots are the only
thing that can possibly be recounted. If the Diebold Republican
Electing machinez eat your vote, it's gone.



We can counter both threats by going to all-mail balloting the way
they do it in Oregon. In states like Florida where we don't have
the votes to do that, we can encourage members of those groups
whose votes are most at-risk to obtain absentee ballots.

We also need to make sure of the chain of custody of those ballots.

[soothsayer]

9. Can't they lie about the votes no matter what kind of voting you do?

How hard is it to throw out all the real absentee ballots and put in the fake ones?

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. That's what the article points out

It sounds like there's a lot of room for tampering all around with the absentee ballots.

"Let me tell you what a Miami-Dade County elections official told me when I asked him how he would throw an election," said Douglas James, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa who has analyzed election systems throughout the country. "He told me, 'I'd probably go at it through the absentee process.' That's where the vulnerabilities are."

Not only can ballots be forged or entire boxes of ballots simply disappear, but the process is riddled with subjectivity.

This whole election's going to be all Cheneyed up!

[Pachamama]

10. Excellent! Every Floridian should be an Absentee voter! Maybe the

DNC and Kerry/Edwards can promote this fact in every state big time!

[cliss]

12. Our entire family is voting absentee...

I know it's not foolproof. But it's the lesser of many evils. The most evil being Evil BeelzBush. We've got to get him out, but he's hanging on by his fingernails.

Blast the bastard out.