Denver all-mail voting sought this fall

[Robb]

The City Council's president says state and federal rules for voting machines have created chaos with election planning this year. The request would require legislative approval.

DENVER - Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez is calling for Denver to switch to an all mail-ballot election this year to avoid chaos created by federal and state voting regulations.

A mail-ballot election in a year with major state and national races would be a "radical" departure from voting statutes, said Rodriguez, a former clerk and recorder. But the city is in a bind.

New federal and state regulations for voting machines have created a crushing environment, Rodriguez said, and delayed the purchase of new machines. Rather than make hasty decisions on a short timeline, she sent a letter to the Denver Election Commission recommending it seek a one-year exemption from the legislature or the Department of Justice "so that we might have a brief respite from the intense regulation of federal and state law in order to make decisions that comply with both for the future."

"We want to be in compliance" with voting machine regulations, she wrote, "but we also want to know what compliance is."

(more)

[otohara]

1. Also read they want to get rid of 432 Polling Places

and replace with 27 Voting somethings - Dang, where did I read that? The 27 places would allow all Denver voters to vote at any of the locations.

[donco6]

5. Vote Centers

Yes they want to consolidate all voting to vote centers where anyone can vote anywhere.

How to control fraud?

[SoCalDem]

8. Here's HOW..

Voter registration records show who is registered.. Each person registered "gets to vote ONE time"..Once a person votes, their name is barred from being used again.. Just like it always has been..

If Mom & Pop convenience stores can master the use of atm cards, why can't the election system just issue every registered voter an atm-style voter registration card. It could only be used ONCE every election cycle, and the use of it would trigger an electronic receipt that has the "random transaction number" identiftying the polling place and time (but not who they voted for)..Once the card is slid (immediately after depositing the PAPER BALLOT into the box), the card would be invalid until the NEXT election..

[sandnsea]

9. Two envelopes

You put your anonymous ballot in one secrecy envelope, then you put that in the signed mail envelope. They check that against the signature on file. One county location. Just not alot of opportunity for fraud. You can also call and check to make sure they got your ballot back, or fix registration problems if you didn't get your ballot and you registered. Works pretty good.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

2. They have no fault absentee balloting, don't they?

When they talk about their voting stats going up after changing to the voting supercenters (fewer locations), they fail to mention that voting in person went down, but the overall numbers went up, thanks to the "no fault" absentee voting.

[Der Blaue Engel]

3. This seems to work well for Oregon

And it sounds like a good way to avoid using those dirty machines. (There's the counting of course...don't know how that's handled.)

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Be careful what you wish for

The Repugs love to help older people (especially, poor, black and illiterate) vote absentee. They target these people and send people to their homes to 'help' them votes. Perfectly legitimate ballot, signed by the voter but the voter often has no clue who they voted for, just that some nice person came over to 'help' them.

[sandnsea]

19. Outlaw it then

People pick up ballots in Oregon too, from all political variations. I'm not sure that the parties can pick them up, I don't remember the details right now, different groups or individuals can offer. But if it's so concerning, just outlaw it. I know it's one of the changes they're talking about in Oregon.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. It is against the law already

Stopping this sort of thing is another matter though.


Here's one story that got a little more press then usual because Ezzie Thomas, who usually 'collects' absentee ballots for Repug candidates, was placed under suspicion when he went to work for a DEM.




The greatest suspicion fell on Ezzie Thomas, because he had personally witnessed applications for 270 absentee ballots, a figure big enough to force a run off election if it could be shown the votes were fraudulent. The city attorney’s office cross checked the signatures on the absentee ballots with the original application forms and concluded they were valid. Intriguingly, the FDLE did the same thing and stated, in a letter written to the state attorney in Orlando in May, that there was “no basis to support the allegations” and that the case should be considered closed.

“They’ve been trying to explain away that letter ever since,” said one senior city employee who did not wish to be identified. Something caused the FDLE to chDISange its mind, because in early June uniformed officers began knocking on doors and asking threatening questions of dozens of black voters who had been in contact with Mr Thomas. Several said the FDLE officers took off their jackets and exposed their firearms while questioning them. In at least one case, the officer crossed his legs and tapped a 9mm pistol sitting in an ankle holster while he asked detailed questions about the interviewee’s reasons for voting absentee. (Absentee voting is a choice under Florida law, so one can wonder about the line of questioning.)

http://www.virtualboricua.org/Docs/ti01.htm

[sandnsea]

21. Putting stamps on envelopes?

You do know that's what that case was all about, right? Stamps being called election quid pro quo.

On the other hand, if you're talking about stopping Republican strong arm investigations to intimidate minority voters, that would be a good idea. Has nothing to do with your post about collecting absentee ballots, although I don't have a problem with stopping the practice anyway.

[DoYouEverWonder]

22. That was the bs they used has a cover

That wasn't what was really going on. This particular case is bizarre in many ways but it was also a set up. We are not talking about putting stamps on envelopes. Thomas' specialty is targeting old, poor, preferably illiterate black people. Then he votes for them. Depending on whose paying him that week, is who gets the vote. This time it happened to be a poor sucker DEM. Usually it's Repugs like Glenda Hood and Mel Martinez.

Thomas isn't the only Repug operative that collects votes for Repugs. There were guys like him all over FL in 2000 and 2004.

The bust was intimidation by Jeb so that the black folks that Thomas 'helped' would be too afraid to talk.

[sandnsea]

23. That was the original charge

It started with charges that stamps were a quid pro quo. Thomas usually works for Dems, Glenda Hood was the exception, not the rule. In any event, what I said was outlaw picking up ballots for people. That wasn't done in Florida at all. The only thing outlawed was paying people to pick them up. But if you start putting in a system that isn't ripe for fraud, then maybe people will start taking their voting rights seriously again. You also have to have local people who are honest which seems to be the biggest problem around the country. Never going to have honest voting until local people take responsibility for the integrity of their own elections.

[burrowowl]

4. What about the homeless

people who just moved and don't receive ballot in time, people in transition, etc.

[sandnsea]

12. There's registration deadlines in most places

So that isn't a problem unique to mail-in. But the good thing about mail-in is that you have 10 days or so to figure out if you've got registration problems and fix them. No last minute mass confusion on voting day.

[shance]

6. That's great. Private counting of the votes. The Bush " trust us"

philosophy.

[sandnsea]

11. How would it be private??

We do it in Oregon and it's one of the most fraud proof and open systems in the country.

[shance]

13. Well when private companies own the ballot data, they own the rights

to any and ALL ACCESS to that data. They count the votes and they tell you what THEY want you to know.

Doesnt that make you feel comfortable?

Of course, this means you have to file a court order to even ever have the slightest access to that data, which during the time you are busily filing, its already been manipulated.

However, realistically it was most obviously tampered with during the election, so its pointless at this juncture to even file to see the illegitemate results.

The damage to the ballot data has been done by those private companies who now own private citizen data that should belong to Americans as citizens, and it was done during the election by those who could easiliy manipulate the data without a trace of fingerprints and those ever handy open source codes.

HAVA is such an amazing and wonderful thing for the rich imperialists. No fingerprints, no worries. Its just like the Patriot Act.

[SoCalDem]

7. We DON'T NEED voting MACHINES..

We need paper, sharpie pens and for local officials to HIRE people to count (re-count) ballots..

If we need more polling stations, so be it:)

It's GOT to be cheaper and safer than spending brazillions of dollars on buggy machines that only make it certain that NO ONE will accept the outcome of any election..ever again

[sandnsea]

10. Mail-in works in Oregon

It works better than any other system in this country. We don't have a brazillion precinct locations, so there's very little opportunity for anybody to create a system of discrimination and fraud.

[shance]

14. How would you know?

Do you count the votes? Are you a state poll worker and tabulator? The only thing that matters now is who is counting the votes.

What is your qualification?

Mail in is a joke. There is ABSOLUTELY no supervision or regulation as to who is counting.

Unless you have county by county public/videod ballot tabulation that is televised, you are as vulnerable as anyone else.

Its NOT WHO CASTS THE VOTES, it is who publicly and transparently, COUNTS THEM.

Who's counting them sandnsea? Can you provide cameras and proof?

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. See my post above

about how easy it is to 'fix' absentee votes. This is what the Repugs do all over FL.

[Toots]

17. At least there are Human being counting Paper Ballots that can be recounte

There is plenty of overview when humans are doing the counting. It is very hard to cheat when being monitored constantly but with machines where there is no real ballot and you have to rely on Republican software and ballots can not be recounted or even seen by human beings. Vote by mail is probably the only thing that is going to save this nation. Remember one of our biggest problems is apathy and getting people to vote. A lot of people just don't like the hassle of trying to find a place to park or standing in a long line or possibly running into someone they did not wish to or maybe just don't feel comfortable voting on certain issues because they don't feel informed. When you vote by mail you have the ballot for a few weeks which should give a person ample time to see what the issues are and how they are worded on the ballot and be able to discuss it a bit with your significant other or friends and make an intelligent decision. Also it is so much easier to sit at your kitchen table and fill out the ballot and give it to the postman when he comes. There will always be doubts during elections but I know from everyone I know that lives in Oregon both sides love the vote by mail system. And remember paper ballots can be recounted when there are doubts or it is really close. Machine votes always remain the same.

[sandnsea]

18. Voting workers and volunteers

Just like everywhere else. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. The counting is no different than in any other state, except it's done only in counties instead of thousands of precincts where more cheating can happen.

We're one of the few states that had no election errors. We kept our Nader and Gore voters from 2000, they all voted for Kerry. We've got it right, and are working to make it even more transparent and fraud proof. If the rest of the country had an election as fraud free as ours, we'd either know who really won or not even be having this conversation.