Will the early voting affect the race? AAre the results secret till Nov 2?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

:shrug:

[Amich]

1. don't know I was wondering the same thing.

PS like your picture.

[crispini]

2. Yes, they are.

You can usually see WHO has voted, but not HOW.

[gratuitous]

3. In Oregon, all balloting is vote-by-mail

It's a good question. But I think that county elections offices are not supposed to open the ballots until 8 p.m. on November 2. The voter's name, address and signature are on the outside of the envelope, so they have a record that you have returned your ballot (and this information is a matter of public record, which means that campaigns are allowed to know whether you've returned your ballot or not), but the contents of your ballot aren't known until they are fed through the ballot reader after the polls are "closed" at 8 p.m. on November 2.

So, in answer to your question, in Oregon at least, the results are secret until the polls close, though the fact that a person has turned in his or her ballot is not secret.

[MissB]

6. What we will know, at least in Oregon, is the percent of ballots returned

So we will have an idea of the turnout before election day. The local media will start giving info on percentages of ballots returned within another week or so, if past elections are any indication.

[central scrutinizer]

8. In 2000, the votes were opened and tabulated as they arrived

I also live in Oregon - and in our county we used to have punch card ballots. My neighbor was hired as a chad plucker and worked for two weeks before the official election day, making sure that the cards would be able to be read by the machine.

And you point that campaigns will know if you have returned your ballot is very important - you should vote as early as possible so that the GOTV campaigns can spend their time and money contacting the people who need, not those of us on DU who are active in the democratic process. I received my ballot Saturday and voted and dropped it off immediately.

[libertad]

4. I'm sure the computers will selectively "crash" before it becomes

public.

[ibegurpard]

5. Supposedly they aren't even opened until the polls close.

eom

[eriffle]

7. Voter roles aren't secret

Your votes are. It is unethical and in some places illegal to give any results until after the polls close. After the election they may release that early voters voted one way or the other, but they aren't allowed to release any numbers until an entire precient has reported. This was an issue in 2000 when the media first called FL for Gore when there were still polls open in the panhandle...After saying this I will now dodge the shoes that will fly at me :P