Flood of mail-in votes will slow tally (in CA)

[question everything]

Los Angeles Daily News

Flood of mail-in votes will slow tally

By Troy Anderson
Staff Writer

Elections officials in Los Angeles County and across California were swamped Thursday by a flood of vote-by-mail ballots for Tuesday's election, and the logjam will slow down the final vote count and could leave some close contests undecided for weeks.

(snip)

Election officials in many states reported people lining up for hours to vote early, and as many as 20 percent of all votes likely will be cast before Election Day.

(snip)

The surge in late registration also will result in more voters casting provisional ballots at polling places because their names weren't added to official precinct lists.

(snip)

At midweek, local election officials across the state had issued more than 4.3 million absentee ballots, far more than the 3 million issued in the 2000 presidential election, according to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

(snip)


Throughout the nation, election experts fear that a whole new set of problems -- especially related to provisional ballots -- will plague this presidential election -- replacing Florida's butterflies-and-chads snafu of the 2000 presidential election.

More..
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2498630,00.html#

Troy Anderson, [phone] [e-mail]

[Piperay]

1. One of those mailed in

ballots here in CA will be my father's. :-) my father is a registered repug but he ALWAYS votes staight Democratic. :bounce: My father was the first one of family to cast his vote, the rest of us are doing it Tuesday. :D

[pinniped]

2. I usually walk my absentee ballot down to the polling place...

and drop it into the lock-box.

This time for sure I'm avoiding the mail.

But there is no way in hell * can take CA without major widespread cheating.

[Nile]

4. Why are you voting by absentee ballot?

Why are you voting by absentee ballot when you can walk to the polling place? Is not this an abuse of the system? I always thought that absentee ballots were meant for those who could not make it to their polling place.

[Dem2theMax]

5. This is not an abuse of the system. Anyone in CA. can get

absentee ballot status. In fact, you can get permanent absentee ballot status. You apply once and as long as you don't miss voting in any statewide general elections, you will be kept on the list forever. Or until you move or die. If you miss voting, you have to reapply. It's that simple.

[goclark]

6. Absentee is the only way

My mom is 85. There is no way that she could have stood in a line for 3 hours.

In CA it use to be that you needed a reason to vote absentee, now you do not.

My cousin did Early Voting yesterday. He stood in line for 3 hours. The line was long with many Seniors in wheel chairs and on canes. There were no provisions for the Seniors to go to the front of the line, there were too many of them.

My cousin said even if you had your absentee ballot, you could not just drop it off. You still had to wait in the line to give it to the poll worker.

My cousin said that when he voted in Culver City, everyone in line was saying how much they hated Bush. Seniors were saying they would stay in line all day and all night to vote Bush out of office!

He said when someone walked out of the polls with a Bush button on, the rest of the line rolled their eyes!

[question everything]

9. Voted absentee when we lived in CA

and we would personally take it to the Registrar of Voters office.

Can you imagine how long and tortuous the lines in the polling places would be if not for absentee ballots?

And, frankly, most advocates of issues or of candidates prefer absentee ballots, some even mail them to voters. These are literally "votes in the bank."

Last week, when early Florida votes were reported, including the problem, a pundit (a Republican, I think) was warning that, hey, some new information may come and it would be too late for these voters..

Also, as soon as the polls close the Registrar of Voters website posts the absentee voters first, while the paper ballots were in transit, and often they would give an indication of the final outcome

[Barkley]

10. I live in CA and mailed my absentee ballot by 'certified mail'

I also scanned a copy of it.

After 2000, I don't trust these people at all.

[goclark]

12. smart idea certified

[Nile]

7. Does that mean that they take you off of the voter lists

Does that mean that they take you off of the voter lists at your physical polling place? The list where they cross out your name when you show ID and vote.

[cally]

8. You are on the voter list , but it shows that you are AV

If you lost your absentee ballot, you can cast a provisional ballot at the polls. You can also turn in tha absentee ballot at any precinct in your county on election day.

[Democat]

11. Voting absentee will take some of the lines away on election day

The more people who go to each polling place, the more chance of lines that cause some people not to have their vote counted.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Mailed mine last Friday