Idea for Parallel Elections Groups

[JimDandy]

Have voters apply for absentee ballots.

Voter fill in absentee ballot, but doesn't put it in AB envelope.

Puts blank piece of paper in AB envelope and seals it.

Goes to poll on election day.

Turns in AB ballot envelope and asks for paper ballot (surrendered AB ballots are NEVER allowed to be opened.)

Voter votes paper ballot and deposits in ballot box.

Voter goes outside and deposits filled out absentee ballot in parallel elections ballot box.


Saves money for PE groups, saves time for voters.

This would also work for states that are doing paper ballot protests, but don't have parallel elections. Here the voter would simply keep the AB ballot as proof of his vote.

edit to add paper ballot protest

[Kire]

1. sounds complicated

what are parallel elections?

[JimDandy]

2. Not at all complicated -- simple in fact.

You're really just using the absentee ballot as a copy of your vote.

Parallel Elections are a way to protect your vote. PE groups set up their own independent "polling place" right outside an actual polling location. They then ask voters who have just finished officially voting to vote again at the PE poll and vote exactly how they voted on their official ballot. The voter signs an affidavit saying this is an exact copy of how he voted officially and then deposits his ballot in the PE ballot box.

StudyCaliforniaBallots.org has a good explanation of why to conduct PEs: http://www.studycaliforniaballots.org/Pages/whatis.html


Another good explanation is at this link to Rady Ananda's "How to Conduct Parallel Elections."
http://freepress.org/vrrc/How-To_Parallel_Election_2006.pdf#search=%22%22parallel%20elections%22%20%22

[AtLiberty]

3. Interesting...but I have one question...

Couldn't it be considered fraudulent to have absentee ballots in one's custody outside of the electoral process?

[JimDandy]

4. That's why I posted this.

Thanks for responding. I was wondering the same thing. As an election judge, I have had provisional and AB ballot envelopes come back empty, so those ballots had to still be in the custody of the voter AFTER the election. There is probably not a problem with that. But what if those ballots end up in the custody of another person - say a PE group - is that problem? I don't know for sure, but I thinks it's at least right at the line.

I was hoping to get a quick definitive answer on DU about that from a lawyer or someone in a PE group, so we didn't have to research all the state laws. I emailed someone in a PE group about this and am waiting to hear back.

We AREN'T running a PE here, but we are hoping to do a paper ballot protest. Originally, we were going to have the paper ballot protesters ask for an AB ballot, fill it out, COPY it, surrender the AB ballot at the poll and vote a paper ballot. This idea came up (for the voter to just retain the AB ballot) and we need to know if we'd be over the line doing that for a nationwide paper ballot protest. We're probably going to end up having to check each state's laws.