In the GE, do our votes get counted?

[larkrake]

Today I was hiking with friends, dems, repub and non party folk, and this discussion came up.

Is voting just an exercise, ending up in a furnace with big cats laughing in a board room? With voting machines, computers, glitches, flipping, how can we be certain it is we the people who is choosing our leaders, or is a board game going on.

Is there a shadow government like Cheney said? I dont like conspiracy theories, but something is not right with our current system.

Secondly, why is there not a national voting process instead of state to state variences?

Thirdly, why is there not a voting bank everyone can log into like a bank site is for all of us, non internet voters having mail-in votes.

It is alot of questions, but I want to get them down before I forget our discussion high points

This is a GE inquiry, so I put it to this forum

[scscholar]

1. Here in WA, we can check on votes without a login

All you need is name and DOB. It will tell if your vote was counted or thrown away. Last election, I checked about four dozen friends, of which most said they voted, and not a one of us had our vote count. I even checked Bill Gates, and the state had canceled his voter registration. If a billionaire can't get the state to count his vote, what hope do the rest of us have?

[larkrake]

2. Oh my God

[uppityperson]

7. Where do we check that? I hadn't heard of that and would like to check. Thanks.

[former9thward]

10. You won't get a reply.

It was a fantasy post.

[uppityperson]

15. Yet I got a reply, same time post as your snarky one

in case you want to self delete or anything

[former9thward]

23. Its BS.

The poster checked 48 people who claimed they had voted and the site said "their votes were thrown in the trash". What BS. Yes a post should be self deleted but not mine.

[larkrake]

30. They come out of the woodwork, Up, just to piss on discussion

[larkrake]

16. she got a valid reply

[former9thward]

24. Valid in a CT eyes but not anyone else.

[scscholar]

11. If you're in King County....

You can use:

http://info.kingcounty.gov/elections/ballottracker.aspx

It's a Microsoft site so it's slow and unreliable, but keep trying. It's shocking how many votes are thrown in the trash. You can check anyone with their name and DOB.

[uppityperson]

22. Thank you for your prompt reply.

[Brother Buzz]

21. All I needed was Zip Code, DOB, and my street number (not street name) to check.....

At my California county's Office of Registar of Voters web site. - Election office in other states.

[RazBerryBeret]

3. I live in Ohio...

I question my votes every election.
I think this primary season has opened a lot of eyes.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist either, but you gotta wonder.

[larkrake]

4. I get that sinking feeling too

[NV Whino]

5. I have read, and I don't know if this is true or not, but...

Mail-ins are counted last, and only counted if the race is close.

I don't believe that is the case in California since there is such a large percentage of mail-ins.

What I can tell you for this election is that I participated in an online "exit poll." I got an email that said this company had been notified by the state (I think) that I had voted by mail, and would I participate in an online exit poll. That means that at least my ballot was received. Whether they count it or not is another matter.

I live in a pretty small county so I don't worry too much about that. I changed my affiliation so I could request a Democratic ballot. Everything went smoothly. At one point I saw where other people in other areas of the state had gotten their ballots, but I hadn't. I sent an email to the registrar and received a response that said the ballots would be mailed within the week. Yep, got it within a few days.

[larkrake]

9. I dont think primaries are a threat to the poweres. It is the General election

I am questioning

Still, your experience is very interesting

Not everyone has a computer to vote with and I would be suspect of any computer provided for that duty. The elderly, blind, ect do not have the knowledge to use one, they even fear them and the same folk dont have nor can afford a smartphone. I think mailing is their option

[NV Whino]

17. Yeah, I'm not advocating voting by computer.

Right now, systems are too easily hacked. I do think the email exit polls are a good idea. It's an easy way to manage them. Obviously, for the reasons you stated, results are limited, but exit polls are only a sampling anyway.

[former9thward]

13. All votes are counted.

It does not matter how close the election is. And mail ins are counted as they come in, not last.

[larkrake]

18. In this scenario, mail in would be counted as they come in of coarse

[jberryhill]

6. Your second question answers your first one

A single election system would be simpler to rig.

[larkrake]

12. How so? Unless the receiving end is what is rigged?

[jberryhill]

25. What do you mean by "the receiving end"?

There are 50 different "receiving ends" in our election system.

[larkrake]

33. we have state tallys now, but National race votes would go to one destination, states are bypassed

State tally will only receive state and county votes- in house This will eliminate electoral voting, election fraud and disenfranchisement nationally, it would even eliminate primaries.

Pres/vp is a national race, getting too expensive and time consuming. Candidates have to piggyback on big Party's to get on 50 ballots, and that's wrong . It keeps the field too narrow.

Candidates can rally where they wish, if they dont have to win states to get delegates to win a nomination to win the presidency. A dozen partys can be on the final ballot and winner take all

[7wo7rees]

8. No.nt

[FSogol]

14. Volunteer and work an election day for your County's Board of Elections.

Your vote counts. Lots of people are there to insure it does.

[larkrake]

19. that is comforting- are you saying they do a hand count after the machine tallys?

because tests of the software used is really unsettling

[FSogol]

26. First time I worked there, it kept a mechanical tally and the votes from each

machine were totaled and the results phoned in. Everything was done in the presence of a few people. Now they use optical scanners, but they have a paper copy it case something goes wrong.

Virginia had a few elections (Creigh Deeds) were the difference was 100-some votes. The state did an automatic recount and the only errors were where someone reversed digits while copying the totals (3828 instead of 3823 type errors.) After the state recanvassed, the totals only changed by 12 votes across the entire state.

While I do not deny that voting problems exist, I feel worries of votes not being counted are spread by the GOP who benefit when people state home. GOTV.

[larkrake]

34. Thank you for that.

Do you think the Pres/VP race should be a national race or stay on state ballots? Forget our current electoral vote system, I am doing research on it

[FSogol]

43. State. n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

20. Every election this question comes up...

and there is no good answer.

For Presidential elections, your individual vote is almost meaningless. Because of the way the Electoral College works, it is possible for a candidate to get more popular votes, but still lose in Electoral votes. That doesn't mean don't vote, it just means it works weirdly.

Local and state elections? It depends on who's running things. Historically, such things voting machines in the Chicago river and spoiled paper ballots in some Southern states have been pretty much the norm. Both parties cheat, so you can't blame it on just one.

I have to say that as far as I know, my county is pretty good about running honest elections. We use scanned paper ballots and nobody's found a problem yet. Other counties, I can't say, but do what you can in yours to get involved.

That thing about not counting mail-in ballots... If there are 100 mailed in ballots and one guy is 500 votes ahead, there really is no reason to count them.

[beachbumbob]

27. Voting is covered under state law as they pay for it....there federal guidelines

[moondust]

28. Hypothetical.

Since the 1984 Reagan landslide I've wondered if it was possible for Republicans or others who would do anything to win elections, including gerrymandering and voter suppression tricks, Jim Crow laws and literacy tests, to strategically place their operatives in a few key positions where the numbers are called in to/received at the central tabulator, simply fudging the numbers instead of reporting them accurately.

I've heard that Chicago, for one, has a lot of shady elections in its history but I don't know the details.

[larkrake]

35. hypothetical, yes, but voiced often A national vote would eliminate that kind of interference

Wisconsin also has had trouble- we know Florida does every election

[moondust]

38. I'd love to see

Internet voting but only if it could be absolutely secured, verifiable, unhackable, maybe open sourced or something. Real direct democracy. "The People" could theoretically even vote on legislation and other government issues.

But...I don't know if that's possible, at least not yet.

[larkrake]

40. No it is just a question at this point

doesnt hurt to flesh it out

[Agnosticsherbet]

29. In California, I use paper ballots that are scanned in to a tabulator. What to you consider counted?

The paper ballots are for a paper trail so that they can be counted by hand if necessary.

[larkrake]

36. I assume that tabulator is a computer? I dont think Calif is corrupted, any blue state is probably

not tampered with, but any region where exit polling is wildly different, well....

I am glad they keep the paper ballots, thank you. Some states do not

[valerief]

31. They didn't in 2000 in Florida. That's for damn sure. nt

[dumbcat]

32. "Secondly, why is there not a national voting process instead of state to state variences? "

You might try reading the Constitution to find out.

[larkrake]

37. Its been many many years since I read that, but it is a national race and no-one should be

silenced. An amendment can be made to anything in the constitution, cant it? Elections are messy , whats wrong with change of a broken system?

[dumbcat]

39. Start your amendment process, and

I'll watch with interest.

Really.

[larkrake]

41. are you one of those "cant do it" persons?

[dumbcat]

44. Sometimes

A man's got to know his limitations.

[metalbot]

45. Are you essentially asking "why do we have an electoral college rather than popular vote"?

If that's the question you are asking, it has a lot to do with trying to balance the rights of smaller states to help pick the president. If we ran national elections on a popular vote, then no politician seeking a national office would ever need to set foot in a flyover state. They'd campaign only in the high population states, and simply fight to rack up votes in them. You'd have a handful of states that would pick presidents, and completely marginalize millions of voters.

[larkrake]

46. that makes sense, thanx

[roamer65]

42. Depends on the state and localities.

In Michigan, we have paper copies that can be audited for recounts or machine failures/tampering.