MIAMI-DADE: WRONGLY MARKED BALLOTS REJECTED

[Mika]

MIAMI-DADE: WRONGLY MARKED BALLOTS REJECTED
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/10125322.htm

snip-

The Miami-Dade canvassing board, which scrutinizes questionable absentee, overseas and provisional ballots, spent a grueling week of 10-hour-plus days to complete most of its work.

Thursday afternoon, with most of it done, the canvassing board chairwoman, County Judge Shelley Kravitz, and a member, Commissioner Katy Sorenson, said they had learned one thing: Many voters do not follow directions, which forced them to throw out hundreds of ballots. The total number is unknown.

Among the most common ballot-rejecting offenses: failure to sign the absentee ballot or a signature that did not resemble the one on file at the elections department.

The two canvassing members -- the third is Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan who breaks deadlocks -- sat in the canvassing room on the second floor of the elections department stamping ''reject'' or ''accept'' on ballots, as a legion of observers watched.

The task was Herculean for just two people, Sorenson said. ``I think state law on the rules of the canvassing board has to be addressed and changed.''

Sorenson cringed at rejecting any ballot. ``I just hated to throw them out after people took the time to send them in, but so many didn't follow directions.''

[Roxy66]

1. Unbelievable!!!

[SoCalDem]

3. Voting is a contest

It should NOT be.. It would be so easy to correct, yet there is no intention of ever doing so.:(

[foo_bar]

2. more like: Marked Ballots Wrongly Rejected

[hlthe2b]

4. If they were going to reject for "disimilar signatures," there should have

been a handwriting expert there to do so. This is just bunk.... How are they expert enought to make this judgement. My own handwriting is all over the place when comparing mine from years past or when I'm really tired.

[llmart]

5. The bigger question is......

why aren't voting procedures standardized across the US? How friggen' hard is this to accomplish?

[okieinpain]

18. where are the dnc lawyers. why not get a couple of those thrown

out ballots, and contact the owner and see if the signature is a fake.

[Zorra]

29. Republicans won't allow it. They cheat, and if they can't cheat

they can't win. The HAVA was used by republicans to make voter fraud even easier for them. They got to use our money to buy machines that they manufactured, that they control, that they can quickly and easily change votes on, and votes cast on these machines are unrecountable. Pretty slick.

It should be obvious to the entire world now that the present chaotic voting system works to republican advantage. Look what they did prior and during this election as far as dirty tricks go. They have institutionalized voting fraud.

[prayin4rain]

9. I agree. That is incredible!!!! I swear sometimes I find things I have

written and it takes me a minute to recognize it as my own handwritng. Who makes these people experts at comparing signatures? Burns me up!!!! And this businees of oh we don't know how many we threw out. They should have to keep tally of how many and how many of each party!!

[Billy Burnett]

11. They know how many were tossed. They just don't want to say how many.

Miami-Dade's "democracy" is at the level of Batista's Cuba.

[prayin4rain]

10. Whoops dupe.

[krkaufman]

24. "when comparing mine from years past or when I'm really tired"

That's exactly what I was thinking. One's signature varies wildly.

[TankLV]

27. I sign up to a hundred documents a day, and my signature varies widly from

one to the next after doing only a few.

That's why banks ask you to sign at least 3 or 4 lines when you open a new account.

[pdx_prog]

6. People do not follow directions

even the most simple directions.....it should be made easier.

[JudyM]

8. 'Zactly. Simpler and more visually clear directions. nt

[TahitiNut]

7. "Reject all the ballots and let God sort 'em out!"

It's an attitude identical to crime and war, "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out!" Bomb entire cities. Fill the prisons, even death row, with innocent people. Why? Because we can't be bothered preserving the innocent and truthful in our Crusade to destroy! Why should we trouble our "beautiful minds"? (Especially in "enemy territory.")

[opihimoimoi]

12. YUP, these dodo heads will do anything, lie cheat steal kill to get their

man god into the winners circle. Sickening, they did it again.

[Heyo]

13. One thing....

"The two canvassing members -- the third is Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan who breaks deadlocks -- sat in the canvassing room on the second floor of the elections department stamping ''reject'' or ''accept'' on ballots, as a legion of observers watched."

That "legion of observers" no doubt included some of the democrat-hired lawyers, no?

:shrug:

Heyo

[goforit]

14. Kerry won Florida???.............My oh my!!!

Highway robbery again.............
Hmmmmmmm.............what are we gonna do, eh?

[0007]

16. What do we ever do about issues of this sort. We let the GOP

run with the news and they spin it the way they want it, while we listen.

[Zhade]

30. Floridians better march, or they lose their right to vote.

It's that fucking simple.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Are these the same people that were on the canvassing board in 2000?

If they are the same people, they are all linked to the Bush administration, despite the fact that at least one is a supposed DEM.

Google, Roger Stone, Armando Gutierrez, Elian Gonzalez and the Miami Riot to see how they are all intertwined.

[PurityOfEssence]

17. Florida law is very clear: voter intent trumps procedural mistakes

This is why the overvotes should have been counted in '00, and this is why dimpled, hanging and whatever chads are legitimate.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

20. and the USSC is very clear

"who cares what you think?"

[okieinpain]

19. a couple here, a few over there, misplace a few here and the next

thing you know, you've got a 3 million vote lead.

[0007]

21. You got it Toyota! Hope the big wigs aren't snoozing.

[Ducks In A Row]

22. I'm finding the signatures excuse is totally bullshit

I talked with people who are and were tellers, and they say that people's signature don't really change that much with age or injury.

Back in the day, when they still stored checks in each branch, every morning each teller had a stack of checks to compare with signature cards. They almost never wrongly flagged a check for not matching the signature. And it was easy to see when a check wasn't signed by the client.

So if these people can't compare signatures, they should be replaced, not throw all those ballots aways.

[Straight Shooter]

23. I listen to testimony of witnesses when lawyers ask about handwriting

The attorney will show them a document of handwritten notes, I'm talking about a whole page, and say, "Do you recognize this handwriting?"

And the witness isn't necessarily being evasive, but often they'll say, "I don't know. It could be mine. I just don't know."

This is bull, this comparison of signatures. I kept a copy of my registration form so I could remember how I signed my name, because sometimes I sign it with a large lower loop and sometimes I don't. It's a very very different signature, depending upon what's on my mind at the time. Sometimes I use my first initial, sometimes I don't.

[ecstatic]

25. Elderly voters do not always have steady hands

Which explains the differing signatures. My grandmother has Parkinsons disease, which prevents her from signing documents in a consistent manner. Why hasn't that issue been brought to the attention of the poll workers? Are the poll workers trained to determine which signatures are valid and which aren't? This system we have is totally fked up.

[Toucano]

26. Directions are irrelevant.

Are they 18? Are they a citizen? Anything else is an unconstitutional impediment.

[Miami Liberal]

28. Miami is full of crooks

especially in government.

[Divine Discontent]

33. miami lib

GOSH you're so right!!!!!!!!!!!! miami is horrible, sorry lib, but ALL the way around. I can't stand it and moved, it's so dirty and unkempt, full of fraud (pay me $50 and I'll get you ALL the channels) and reeks of over the top 'if it feels good do it' mentality, and I consider myself moderately liberal!


YOU KNOW THEY TOSSED DEM VOTES LEFT & RIGHT!!
Tossed non-matching signatures my ASSSSSSSSSSSSS

[Eric J in MN]

31. If a signature looks differerent, they should CONTACT THE VOTER,

not just throw out the ballot.

[Eric J in MN]

40. anyone agree with me about this? nt

nt

[Judi Lynn]

32. Didn't a lot of people decide to use absentee ballots BECAUSE they feared

they couldn't trust how the machines would be used?

The Republicans were able to void THEIR votes, anyway. I would like to see the stack of discarded ballots, wouldn't you? It could be very educational.

[bhikkhu]

34. Another common ballot-rejecting offense:

failure to vote for *

[loudsue]

35. THAT is the entire point, reyd..."failure to vote for bush" is reason to

reject an absentee ballot in Florida.

:nuke: I'm friggin' sick of this!! :nuke:

We've got to get these monsters off the streets so that America can be a Democracy again!!!

:kick::Kick::kick:

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

36. Signatures don't match??

They throw out votes based on a subjective decision that a signature doesn't match?? Sounds like a recipe for mischief!

[Logansquare]

39. That's asking for fraud, I agree n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

37. Signiture matching is easy in Florida

All you have to do check who they voted for. Duh - easiest job on Earth.

[stickdog]

38. That is clearly contrary to the intent of the Florida Constitution.

Time to address the FSC again. Hopefully the Gang of Five will mind their own judicial business this time.