Question: Court-Order Voting

[Earth_First]

What is the difference between court-order voting in front of a judge at your party committee headquarters and an affidavit ballot cast at a polling place?

Lastly, I've heard lot's of talk in the past about court-order and provisional ballots coming under scrutiny by opposite party headquarters in attempts to throw these ballots out during major elections. Does a court-order ballot stand stronger than a provisional/affidavit ballot under these circumstances?

Please bear with me in helping me understand this situation here. Just attempting to understand the differences.

THANKS, DU!

:hi:

[Igel]

1. In practice, none.

The difference is--as it was explained to me when I was a poll worker in Brighton--that some people do not trust affadavit ballots. They want to actually cast their vote and have it recorded with all the other votes.

There's something to be said for this: It's possible that an affadavit ballot won't be judged valid for some reason. Perhaps you were in the wrong precinct. Perhaps you do something wrong and didn't complete the form correctly. Or perhaps the ballot falls between the desk and the wall when they're checking to see if they're valid. I watched a dem poll worker carefully guide some voters through the affadavit process a few times. Late in the day the other poll workers overheard what the guy was saying, and he was *wrong*: what he did was have some voters void their ballots. *He* signed where *they* should have signed. Dork.

On the other hand, an affadavit ballot is easy to fill out (really: the pollworkers have flipcards in most places with dork-proof step-by-step instructions ... if the pollworkers are humble enough to look). Getting a judge to issue an order that you be allowed to vote is obnoxious.

I also think that what the judge does is issue an order: he presents it to the pollworkers, who are obliged to let the bearer vote.

[Earth_First]

2. It sure is obnoxious...

However tomorrow it will be the only way I am able to vote unfortunately. I am semi-relieved that I will be doing this at Democratic Party Headquarters, so the chance of my ballot disappearing are in my favor.

Thanks for the explanation!

[Igel]

3. I think you still have to go to a precinct polling station.

I don't think the judge is authorized to accept your vote. S/he just says, "You there, poll workers. This person is entitled to vote, and I'm ordering you to let him do so or an officer of the court will come and remove your tonsils by way of your arse."

In highly officious and pretentious language, of course.