Possible glitch with vote-by-mail system

Paslode · 10-26-2010, 18:50

I requested a mail in ballot in Kansas in late June early July. I received my mail in ballot October 15th. Early voting began October 19th. I was worried about mailing ballot so walked into vote.

When I went to sign in the election official asked if I was aware I had requested a mail in. I told her yes, I received it last Friday and decided to cast my vote in person because I wanted to make sure my vote was received.

Her whispered reply..... That was probably a good idea considering that the Postal Service took 4-6 weeks to get around to delivering the mail in ballots. We are concerned what is going to happen when people mail them back in.

Looks like Illinois is having similar problems.......

Quote:

October 26, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- This year marks the first Illinois election that any registered voter can cast their ballot by mail, no excuses necessary. Even as the deadline for those ballots to be postmarked nears, problems are brewing.

An Illinois county election official is telling the ABC 7 I-Team that thousands -- potentially hundreds of thousands -- of voters who are expecting a ballot sent to them by mail may be disenfranchised.

Chicagoan Rosia Carter is one of 404,000 registered Illinois voters who recently received vote-by-mail requests that were sent by the Illinois Democratic Coordinated Campaign.

"By the time I filed it out and sent it in, my vote would not get counted," Carter said.

She and others called the I-Team when they noticed the return address is not their local election official but instead a PO box for the organization. IDCC officials claim they are entering ballot request information into their own database before sending the mailings on to election authorities who then mail voters the ballot.

The Lake County clerk received a shipment of 500 ballot requests from the IDCC Tuesday. By law, her office has two days to process the ballot requests. The problem is, Thursday is the deadline for election officials to get the ballots out.

IDCC told the clerk that another 1,500 ballot requests are headed to her office, which, she says, may not give her enough time to process all the ballots, potentially disenfranchising voters.

"I called Mike Madigan," Carter said, "and they said 'We farmed out this job, here's their phone number,' and I said 'I don't want the number, that's your job to call.' "

Carter and others who contacted the I-Team are furious that their vote may also be thrown out because the IDCC put the registered voters' wrong birthdate on the form.

"My birthdate is wrong," said Carter. "That means it doesn't match the election board of commissioners' records."

The IDCC says that less that "1 percent of the ballot applications have been affected by the date-of-birth glitch and that a voter's birthday is not a required piece of personal data to request a ballot."

"If it affects only one person, it's wrong. If it affected just me, it's wrong. System needs to be checked.

The IDCC told the I-Team that they used their PO box as the return address because they "are better able to track the process and make sure there are fewer problems."

Forty-five of the ballots the Lake County clerk received Tuesday from the IDCC should have gone to Will County. At the clerk's own expense, Lake County is having them delivered overnight to Will County so those voters won't be disenfranchised.

Full response from the Illinois Democratic Coordinated Campaign

Reponse to your inquiry from the Executive Director of the ILDCC, Dave Seman:
Less that 1 percent of the ballot applications have been affected by the glitch. Date of Birth is not a required piece of personal data to request a ballot. It was additional information that we included that may be wrong in some cases because of a vendor glitch. We are monitoring the problem but don't have any cause for alarm. We are simply encouraging voters to check the application to make sure their date of birth and all personal information is correct. The majority of applications we are getting back have been fixed by the voters themselves and we are confident that this glitch will remedy itself. The important thing is for people to fill out their absentee ballot application carefully and completely. We have the resources in place to make sure everyone's vote is valid and counted.

Why are you sending it to a PO Box instead of directly to an election authority?
We are doing everything we can to make sure our voters vote - this is pretty standard. In order to help Illinoisans apply for an absentee ballot the ILDCC incurred the cost of the postage so that we can help ensure folks get their ballot on time and that we know who is voting. Turn out as everyone knows is critical to this election. By working this through a PO Box we are better able to track the process and make sure there are fewer problems.
(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...eam&id=7747590

**The Reaper** · 10-26-2010, 18:54

I am sure that it will come as a shock to election officials, most of whom probably have no recent military service, but some of our deployed teams do not have internet access, nor do they get the opportunity to send or receive mail more than once or twice per month due to their isolation. Food and ammo is airdropped to them.

Should they be denied the opportunity to vote for the elected officials of the nation they serve?

TR

Paslode · 10-26-2010, 19:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

I am sure that it will come as a shock to election officials, most of whom probably have no recent military service, but some of our deployed teams do not have internet access, nor do they get the opportunity to send or receive mail more than once or twice per month due to their isolation. Food and ammo is airdropped to them.

Should they be denied the opportunity to vote for the elected officials of the nation they serve?

TR

To the contrary. Extreme effort should made to make sure every person serving overseas/doing the countries bidding, is given ample time and opportunity to participate.

Unfortunately it appears some folks don't give a good damn.

longrange1947 · 10-26-2010, 20:00

But they ll go out of their way to make sure that convicted felons and illegal aliens can get a chance to vote.

alelks · 10-26-2010, 20:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by longrange1947

But they ll go out of their way to make sure that convicted felons and illegal aliens can get a chance to vote.

EXACTLY!

We need to get rid of every damn one of them (the ones in DC) and put new people in the positions telling them that if they don't shape up they are out come next elections. After a couple of go rounds they will start getting the message to listen to the people they represent.

Paslode · 10-26-2010, 20:52

I'll say this....

Our election system is in sad, sad shape. Once it may have been the envy of the world, but any more it is nothing but a 3 Ring Circus that makes a mockery of the whole process.

I am sure Richard can come up with historical examples of the same tried and true methods of fraud throughout out history.........but in my life time it appears to have reached an all time low.

Thugs hanging out at the polls, physical altercations, the 1st Lady campaigning at the polls, Congressman Dennis Moore campaigning at the polls, buying votes with food and gas cards, the Postal Service storing ballots in the back corner, voting machine glitches, hanging chads and even after passing a law.... some go out of there way to dick our service members and Deputy Dawg gives them a get out of jail free card!

it is absolutely a disgrace and these smug MF'ers just keep smiling.

GratefulCitizen · 10-26-2010, 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paslode

I'll say this....

Our election system is in sad, sad shape. Once it may have been the envy of the world, but any more it is nothing but a 3 Ring Circus that makes a mockery of the whole process.

I am sure Richard can come up with historical examples of the same tried and true methods of fraud throughout out history.........but in my life time it appears to have reached an all time low.

Thugs hanging out at the polls, physical altercations, the 1st Lady campaigning at the polls, Congressman Dennis Moore campaigning at the polls, buying votes with food and gas cards, the Postal Service storing ballots in the back corner, voting machine glitches, hanging chads and even after passing a law.... some go out of there way to dick our service members and Deputy Dawg gives them a get out of jail free card!

it is absolutely a disgrace and these smug MF'ers just keep smiling.

They'll never acquire lasting power by these methods.
Stolen elections accomplish nothing if the "elected" government loses legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

We need not fear tyranny.
The people are well-armed and the trigger-pullers serving our nation are loyal to the Constitution.

Those who would steal elections are just damaging their own agenda in the long run.
They can no longer erase the record of their deeds and the people will not long tolerate them.

These are the last, desperate acts of aging hippies, fading into obscurity and irrelevance.
They will live to see their dreams crushed.

May they live long, bitter lives.

**Peregrino** · 10-26-2010, 21:25

I'll bet the cemeteries get their ballots in on time. After all - that's a tradition in Chicago politics.

T-Rock · 10-26-2010, 22:02

Quote:

Man said he voted straight-party ticket and got opposite results

Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine screen displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked. He cleared the screen and tried again with the same result, he said. Then he asked for and received help from election staff.

“They pushed it twice and the same thing happened,” Laughinghouse said. “That was four times in a row. The fifth time they pushed it and the Republicans came up and I voted.”

M. Ray Wood, Craven County Board of elections chairman, issued a written statement saying that the elections board is aware of isolated issues and that in each case the voter was able to cast his or her ballot as desired.

Source: http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/ma...een-voter.html

Quote:

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines.

Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked.

Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same time all had the same thing happen.

"Something's not right," Ferrara said. "One person that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five minute period of time -- that's wrong."

Source: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/25511115/detail.html

Masochist · 10-28-2010, 22:59

Apparently it's not that hard to tweak these machines, or even install something completely different on them. Allegedly this can be done by simply replacing one card.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/p...eals-20100823/

Essentially all voting machines are is a computer with software designed for a specific purpose. Modify or change the software, you change the purpose of the box. If the oversight (storage, testing before implementation, etc.) of the machine is lax, it's easy to make one things do something it wasn't intended to do with no one the wiser.

stickey · 11-01-2010, 09:04

I had three guys get their absentee ballots returned to them. They made it all the way to the states, two to their own state, and was stamped "postage due". They were mailed from the APO here, with "free" written on the upper right hand corner and postmarked/stamped by the local APO. \

I on the otherhand called my county elections rep inquiring about my absentee ballot and where it was and if they could just email it to me. (I registred to vote when i recently renewed my drivers lic.)

According to them, i had never registered and my address back home is not on their records and is not a valid address/residence. I don't know how it isn't, i'm being taxed at that address, but i guess i waited too long to fight it because the the NLT date to register was within 2-3 days from my phone call. I would like to know where my absentee ballot request ended up at since i mailed it in....early September.

Quite disgusted.

Gypsy · 11-01-2010, 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by stickey

I had three guys get their absentee ballots returned to them. They made it all the way to the states, two to their own state, and was stamped "postage due". They were mailed from the APO here, with "free" written on the upper right hand corner and postmarked/stamped by the local APO. \

I on the otherhand called my county elections rep inquiring about my absentee ballot and where it was and if they could just email it to me. (I registred to vote when i recently renewed my drivers lic.)

According to them, i had never registered and my address back home is not on their records and is not a valid address/residence. I don't know how it isn't, i'm being taxed at that address, but i guess i waited too long to fight it because the the NLT date to register was within 2-3 days from my phone call. I would like to know where my absentee ballot request ended up at since i mailed it in....early September.

Quite disgusted.

People need to get their asses stomped for this crap.

**Pete** · 11-01-2010, 17:58

How far we have come since the civil war where the Union Regiments were allowed to vote - and their votes counted.

Love & Valor

Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob & Emeline Ritner

Camp 25th Iowa Infantry
Near Vinings Station, Georgia
Morning November 9, 1864

"......Well, we had an election yesterday, and elected Old Abe with a perfect rush. I acted as one of the judges of selection. Our Regiment poled 338 votes, 323 for Lincoln and 15 for McClellan. I think it was doing first rate. McClellen only got one vote from Henry Co. in the 25th and none in Company B. Our Brigade the 4th, 9th, 25th, 30th and 31st Iowa - gave Lincoln about 1,325, McClellen 101. We are all highly pleased with the result and hope the folks at home have done their duty as well.
The paymaster is still fooling around and has not paid us yet. He is slower than the 7-year itch and as mean..............."

It is interesting to note the numbers. 338 in a Regiment and under 1,500 for a 5 Regiment Brigade. Not because the others didn't vote - but because thats all there was. And the paymaster

They were getting ready for the march to the sea.