Tallying of early votes

[I Shrugged]

I don't recall ever seeing news stories about early voting ballot tallies. This year there are many. Trump is doing well in Florida, etc.

I am shocked that early votes are tallied and reported. This seems wrong.

Discuss.

[Xan]

Totally wrong. I'm not a fan of early voting at all, and this makes it worse.

I also hate those stupid "I Voted" stickers. If somebody votes because he saw me wearing a sticker, then that person should not have voted.

[Tyler]

I also hate those stupid "I Voted" stickers. If somebody votes because he saw me wearing a sticker, then that person should not have voted.

I dunno -- I kinda like this one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/ ... tion_ever/

[dualstow]

Interesting, in part because my parents voted early. FL residents.

I also hate those stupid "I Voted" stickers. If somebody votes because he saw me wearing a sticker, then that person should not have voted.

I dunno -- I kinda like this one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/ ... tion_ever/

Awesome.

[WiseOne]

I don't recall ever seeing news stories about early voting ballot tallies. This year there are many. Trump is doing well in Florida, etc.

I am shocked that early votes are tallied and reported. This seems wrong.

Discuss.

+1. I'm shocked too. It's always been an ironclad rule that voting statistics remain carefully guarded until the polls close. The news reports are also using very misleading language. They of course can't reveal the actual votes, but they do know the party affiliations of those who voted. They are then combining this with polling data to predict voting patterns, or simply assuming that everyone is voting their party.

If the news organizations are bored and looking for something to report on, how about looking into things like closing polling places, voter roll purges, hackers getting into voting systems etc?

[clacy]

As far as I know, it's only ballots that have been returned and party ID that is tallied, not the actual vote counted.

So for instance, hypothetically if 675K registered R's, 700K registered D's and 550K I's have returned early votes, they know the numbers returned, but they don't report who each person voted for.

That was probably a really messy way to say it doesn't account for crossover voting, nor does it indicate who unaffiliated voters chose.

[dragoncar]

As far as I know, it's only ballots that have been returned and party ID that is tallied, not the actual vote counted.

So for instance, hypothetically if 675K registered R's, 700K registered D's and 550K I's have returned early votes, they know the numbers returned, but they don't report who each person voted for.

That was probably a really messy way to say it doesn't account for crossover voting, nor does it indicate who unaffiliated voters chose.

That makes more sense. I thought in 2000 they were saying that mail-in ballots basically were never counted unless the race was close enough that it would make a difference. That was a bit upsetting to me at the time.

[MachineGhost]

That makes more sense. I thought in 2000 they were saying that mail-in ballots basically were never counted unless the race was close enough that it would make a difference. That was a bit upsetting to me at the time.

Gore won 270+ electoral votes if the FL Supreme Court had decided to wait to count all the votes. We could have avoided Cheney's entire NeoCon fiasco in the Middle East.

[dragoncar]

That makes more sense. I thought in 2000 they were saying that mail-in ballots basically were never counted unless the race was close enough that it would make a difference. That was a bit upsetting to me at the time.

Gore won 270+ electoral votes if the FL Supreme Court had decided to wait to count all the votes. We could have avoided Cheney's entire NeoCon fiasco in the Middle East.

I never heard that gore would have won in a recount. So what, if any, was the failure here? Terrible voting mechanisms (punch card), premature certification of close vote, fraudulent vote counting?

In their words, what should FL have done to ensure that their electoral college votes only went to the winner of the popular vote in FL

[MachineGhost]

I never heard that gore would have won in a recount. So what, if any, was the failure here? Terrible voting mechanisms (punch card), premature certification of close vote, fraudulent vote counting?

In their words, what should FL have done to ensure that their electoral college votes only went to the winner of the popular vote in FL

I'd say it was a premature certification because I think the FL Supreme Court was all Republican at the time. But Gore was also very gracious is conceding. Can't imagine that happening this time.

[WiseOne]

BTW, I had an interesting voting experience that is worth sharing.

As many of you know, I moved last year within New York City. Per the NY voter registration website, you need to change your address over a year in advance of an election. This has been a problem for years; people who move end up disenfranchised for that amount of time. So I decided to do nothing and just go vote in my old district. When I got there, I discovered that my name had been taken off the registration list. I was told that there are "Republican" groups who regularly check voter lists against things like USPS address change requests to purge the rolls.

So I went back to my current district's polling place to put in an affidavit vote. I brought ID and a copy of my maintenance bill, as I figured I'd have to show some evidence that I lived there and was a US citizen. To my amazement, I was never asked for these things. I filled out a ballot and affidavit form (listing current and previous address), and handed it in. If the poll worker was correct, it's been counted along with all the other votes.

Unless there's some serious and very fast behind the scenes checking, this is a pretty big invitation to voter fraud. ANYONE can put in an affidavit vote!! I guess later the city can go after you if you fraudulently check the "US citizen" box, but I suspect not a lot of that actually happens.

[dualstow]

BTW, I had an interesting voting experience that is worth sharing.
...

That is fascinating! I wonder what other voting stories will emerge.
In the end, this was quite an exciting ride -- last night, not the last year -- and even though I stayed up until the wee hours, I was still very surprised when I woke up this morning and saw confirmation of Trump's victory. I have no idea what the future holds.

[Kriegsspiel]

BTW, I had an interesting voting experience that is worth sharing.
...

That is fascinating! I wonder what other voting stories will emerge.
In the end, this was quite an exciting ride -- last night, not the last year -- and even though I stayed up until the wee hours, I was still very surprised when I woke up this morning and saw confirmation of Trump's victory. I have no idea what the future holds.

I talked about mine in the other thread: could have easily voted several times, as they didn't ask for any kind of identification. Maybe it is easy to see why Obama et al say voter fraud doesn't happen. If they don't detect it, why WOULD they?

[dualstow]

Hmm, I didn't have to give ID, but I did have to sign under my name, like the last four elections, so I probably couldn't repeat votes.
Interesting, I'll look for your other post.

[Kriegsspiel]

Hmm, I didn't have to give ID, but I did have to sign under my name, like the last four elections, so I probably couldn't repeat votes.
Interesting, I'll look for your other post.

Signing someone else's name doesn't seem like a big hurdle.

[dualstow]

Hmm, I didn't have to give ID, but I did have to sign under my name, like the last four elections, so I probably couldn't repeat votes.
Interesting, I'll look for your other post.

Signing someone else's name doesn't seem like a big hurdle.

No, but you have to know what name to give. And I imagine the conversation, at least at my small voting division, would go something like, "Hi I'm Terry Jones."
"Weren't you here two hours ago with a red sweater instead of that leather jacket?"

Then again maybe not. But when the real Terry Jones comes to sign and vote and finds it taken, the jig is up.

[Xan]

Hmm, I didn't have to give ID, but I did have to sign under my name, like the last four elections, so I probably couldn't repeat votes.
Interesting, I'll look for your other post.

Signing someone else's name doesn't seem like a big hurdle.

No, but you have to know what name to give. And I imagine the conversation, at least at my small voting division, would go something like, "Hi I'm Terry Jones."
"Weren't you here two hours ago with a red sweater instead of that leather jacket?"

Then again maybe not. But when the real Terry Jones comes to sign and vote and finds it taken, the jig is up.

Is it? Terry Jones won't be allowed to vote. Or maybe he could convince them to let him. But they can't exactly take back your fraudulent vote once you've made it, can they?

[dualstow]

In case it's not clear, the names are preprinted in a booklet. For first-time voters, it's a bit more complicated.

Signing someone else's name doesn't seem like a big hurdle.

No, but you have to know what name to give. And I imagine the conversation, at least at my small voting division, would go something like, "Hi I'm Terry Jones."
"Weren't you here two hours ago with a red sweater instead of that leather jacket?"

Then again maybe not. But when the real Terry Jones comes to sign and vote and finds it taken, the jig is up.

Is it? Terry Jones won't be allowed to vote. Or maybe he could convince them to let him. But they can't exactly take back your fraudulent vote once you've made it, can they?

I don't know the process. I'm just saying that the whole thing would be under investigation, especially if even more than one victim came forward and said, "What do you mean I've already signed in?"

I imagine he would be able to vote, but I don't know how they would erase the fake vote. Sure, it's possible that a whole bunch of people are failing to vote and the fraudsters just happen to be able to supply the right names, ie the ones matching those specific persons who didn't show- but it seems astronomically unlikely. Also, at least where I live, it's a small enough of a division that many of us recognize each other. I saw many of my neighbors that morning.

[MachineGhost]

And this is why a government issued picture ID should be required to vote.

I think Voter ID cards are a better way to go to avoid the hassle of different forms of ID's and expecting voluntary poll workers to be an expert at fraudulent ID detection. That's what you got up there in IL.

So if Democrat voters are used to double dipping like this, that's an even bigger bitchslapping loss than it is already.

[WiseOne]

I think there is almost no way to prevent fraudulent votes from happening and being counted. Any chance of getting caught happens well after the fact, but the penalties might be considerable (misrepresentation on a government form). It's sort of like cheating on your taxes. Lots of people do it, but more avoid it because even though the probability of getting caught is small, the penalties can be bad.

A voter ID card isn't going to be the perfect solution either I'm afraid. People will lose or forget them, especially since they only need to produce it once a year or so. Nor is government-issued ID unless it's a passport, because you don't have to be a citizen to get a driver's license. Unless maybe there's a way to put a stamp on a driver's license (or non-driver ID) to indicate eligibility to vote.

Of course, ID in general will never pass, because it'll certainly affect certain demographic segments that the Dems don't want to lose. Unless the new Congress & Pres take the opportunity to get it done, instead of wasting their time on idiotic crap like the flag-burning amendment like they usually do.

[dragoncar]

Any chance of getting caught happens well after the fact, but the penalties might be considerable (misrepresentation on a government form). It's sort of like cheating on your taxes. Lots of people do it, but more avoid it because even though the probability of getting caught is small, the penalties can be bad.

Also, the benefits are basically nil. Yes, we've had a lot of close elections but you personally voting twice is highly unlikely to sway the outcome of any election.