Is there a movement to push absentee voting in critical areas?

[WilliamPitt]

Like Ohio, land of Mr. O'Dell and his personal guarantees?

Would such a movement also somewhat offset the impact of a delayed/threatened election?

[wyethwire]

1. Did anybody else to MoveOn's voter reg today?

We had technical difficulties downloading our list of voters.

[Philostopher]

2. I think it's a non-starter in Ohio.

This link from the Ohio state forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x974

Apparently, as of today, there are only a few counties in Ohio that will be using any electronic machines in November. Most still use punch-cards, though some use OCR scanning.

Don't know how absentee voting would affect anything -- why count 'em, absentee ballot or not, until the election is held?

[WilliamPitt]

3. Are those counties Democratic?

[Philostopher]

8. Let's see ...

Hardin, Lorain, Mercer, Trumbull. I can't tell you specifically, but I can make a fair guess determined by where they're located.

Lorain -- just west of Cleveland. Parts of Cleveland are more Dem than others, the west/southwest side being pretty conservative, from what I saw when I was there last.

Trumbull -- Northeastern Ohio, near the PA border, and probably Dem.

Hardin -- don't know, but it looks like it's in the northern farm belt, and probably more conservative historically. I'll be happy to be corrected ...

Mercer -- That's Celina. Not far from Hardin, though Bowling Green State U is somewhere up around there, I'd imagine most of these counties tend more Republican than Dem.

They were, by the way, pushing hard for Cuyahoga and Montgomery counties to go with electronic machines, but failed. Ken Blackwell was very disappointed, I think.

[WilliamPitt]

11. Best way to tell

Check the reps for those districts.

[Philostopher]

14. I don' t know -- it's hard to tell in Ohio.

The Republicans here have had a decade and a half to carve the shit out of our counties to guarantee they dilute traditionally Dem voting blocs. I do know Lorain County, of the four listed, has a Democratic sheriff. Mercer County, apparently, does not -- and Trumbull and Hardin didn't even have links on the Ohio Dem Party web site. I could look up the sites for the county sheriffs, but most don't state their political affiliation on the website, once they're in office. Everybody in the county knows, but they don't say anything about it on the county site, usually.

I pulled up one of the 'red and blue' donations sites, and the only one of these counties that seemed to be in an area that produces a significant amount of Democratic candidate donations was Lorain County. Which may only mean that the others are in bad financial condition, and that the only people there who can afford to donate are Republicans.

Wish I could be more specific/helpful, but really it's difficult to tell with Ohio, and I know my district includes parts of at least two, maybe three counties (and there are three congressional districts that include parts of my county) -- perhaps there are DUers who live in those counties who could tell you more. The Ohio State forum has posteres from all over Ohio, you might be able to get a more confident estimation on those counties there.

[Imperialism Inc.]

7. That's interesting.

Just a couple weeks ago the Franklin County BOE gave me detailed election night procedures for electronic voting in a phone conversation. I'll have to call tomorrow to confirm this.

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. I push it everywhere...

Just in case.

[Dookus]

5. Why does...

anybody believe that absentee ballots are less susceptible to fraud?

Boxes of ballots have "gone missing" for generations.

[WilliamPitt]

12. True, but you have to steal them with your hands

not a keyboard.

[Imperialism Inc.]

6. You have to have a medical reason in Ohio.

Or be out of your county. You can't simply do absentee because you want to unfortunately.

[Amaya]

9. I'm surprised most states don't have mail in voting

Voting by mail is the preferred way in Oregon. I think it works well.

[Imperialism Inc.]

13. Yeah not sure why.

It is pretty easy to do, though. You don't have to be living temporarily out of county (which I was once). Just working out of county for the day is enough. But, for obvious reasons, not a good idea to fake it.

[Paragon]

10. Probably will be punch card forever in my district.

An electronical-type deevice would confuse the hell out of the workers, I'm sure.

[oasis]

15. kick

[SoCalDem]

16. Here's the problem with absentee ballots..

I have always heard/read that absentee ballots are received and then "stored".. If the election is "close", they are opened and verified, so ...worst case scenario...majority of dems in an area request absentee ballots so that thei votes will count, and if the repubes turn out in force, and the election ends up "not-close", those unopened democratic ballots will remain uncounted..

anyone have anything in writing that details how they are handled differently???