What to do when you don't believe you can legitimately win elections

[Michael Tee]

<<Nearly 3,000 dead people voted for the Democrat.>>

I could see 3,000 dead guys voting, but how was it proven that they all voted Democratic?

[BT]

Eliminate the invalid votes and then look at the new tallies?

[BT]

I would guess that they're pretty well known individually to the organizations which care for them, feed and shelter them.

When i registered in this county i had to provide a utility bill at the minimum to qualify. I would not qualify even if i knew the librarian who handed me the forms without that piece of paper.

Was that unconstitutional?

[Michael Tee]

<<Eliminate the invalid votes and then look at the new tallies?>>

If a ringer using the fake ID of a dead guy drops his ballot into the box, I would presume it's anonymous.

If you find out later that one of the guys whose ballot was dropped into the box was dead at the time, how do you know which of the ballots in the box was the dead man's?  How do you know which of the ballots in the box were dropped in by ringers and which by legitimate voters?  You can't "eliminate the invalid votes" because they're all anonymous.  All you can know is how many dead guys voted, not HOW they voted.  Unless ONLY the dead showed up to vote.

[Michael Tee]

<<When i registered in this county i had to provide a utility bill at the minimum to qualify. I would not qualify even if i knew the librarian who handed me the forms without that piece of paper.

<<Was that unconstitutional?>>

Sure.  If you didn't live on the state grid you wouldn't be allowed to vote?  That's fuckin bullshit.  You got a right to vote even if you power your home with solar energy and draft horses and get your water out of a rain barrel.

[Amianthus]

If a ringer using the fake ID of a dead guy drops his ballot into the box, I would presume it's anonymous.

Maryland cross references the number on the ballot with the voter registration. And Maryland outlawed IDs at the polling place. No ID required to vote in Maryland, if you know the name of a registered voter, you can vote in their place.

[Michael Tee]

<<Maryland cross references the number on the ballot with the voter registration. >>

Huh???  What???  That is out-rucking-fageous.  They have eliminated the secret ballot???
Your country really IS going to hell in a handbasket.

[Amianthus]

Huh???  What???  That is out-rucking-fageous.  They have eliminated the secret ballot???

What do expect from a state that is run by Democrats?

[BT]

apparently numbered ballots are common. This from Texas:

    After you print a copy of the ballot, you will need to put a ballot number at the top of the ballot beginning with the next ballot number of the last number of your original ballot order. In other words, if you ordered 15,000 ballots numbered 1-15,000, any ballots you create would be numbered beginning with the number 15,001. You will need to put your initials on the back of the ballot so you can determine it was an official ballot provided by you.

Further, officials are instructed that they may have to manually hand count ballots that would otherwise be counted by either optical-scan systems or recorded by touch-screen voting machines.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1233&Itemid=113

[fatman]

It isn't.  But without such, it's much easier to get the same person to vote multiple times, even if they're dead.  And surpise, they nearly all vote Democrat.  Go figure

In the Washington gubernatorial race that was referenced in BT's article, most of the discarded votes (most, I believe, were felon voters) went for the Republican candidate, Dino Rossi.  So, after the third recount, we got stuck with Christine (I want to be called Kris now) Gregoire, a former state attorney general whose vast ineptitude over a court ordered sex offender treat facility ended up costing the state millions of dollars a day.

I don't like her, and I haven't really met anyone else who does, but there she is in her Olympia mansion.

Point is, not all faulty votes go to Democrats, even in a predominantly Democratic state like WA.

[Amianthus]

In the Washington gubernatorial race that was referenced in BT's article, most of the discarded votes (most, I believe, were felon voters) went for the Republican candidate, Dino Rossi.  So, after the third recount, we got stuck with Christine (I want to be called Kris now) Gregoire, a former state attorney general whose vast ineptitude over a court ordered sex offender treat facility ended up costing the state millions of dollars a day.

Actually, the felon votes were not brought up until the Republican Party's lawsuit in May - long after Gregoire had taken the lead. It was an attempt to reduce the number of Democrat votes. In addition, the judge in that case left in most of the felon votes, so they were counted in the total that led to Gregoire's victory.

The judge only removed 5 votes, not enough to have overcome the 133 vote advantage for Gregoire.

[Amianthus]

Point is, not all faulty votes go to Democrats, even in a predominantly Democratic state like WA.

Didn't think the state was predominantly Democratic - I was under the impression that only King County was heavily Democratic, and virtually all of the rest of the state was more or less Republican territory.

[fatman]

Didn't think the state was predominantly Democratic - I was under the impression that only King County was heavily Democratic, and virtually all of the rest of the state was more or less Republican territory.

It's actually quite a mix.  I live in Skagit County (right under the purple county in the middle top of the pic), and I've always considered it more or less Dem.  I'm surprised to see it pink.

Both of our US Senators are Dem (women also), as are 6 out of our 9 US Reps.  The only Republican governor within the last 25 years was Dan Evans, who was extremely moderate.  Western Washington is predominantly Democrat, with the main population centers of Sea-Tac (Seattle Tacoma), Vancouver, Everett, and Bellingham usually voting Dem.  The eastern part of the state, which has tried a couple of times to form its own state with Eastern Oregon, is predominantly Republican. (There is an irony here, that the Spokane Spokesman Review outed Spokane mayor Jim West for a gay sex scandal, then was a major player in the gay sex scandal of Larry Craig, senator from neighboring Idaho).  Although Washington is a "purple" state, I think that it's been growing predominantly darker.  It's the least religious of the 50 states (in terms of church attendance) and the religious pandering that goes on in a lot of other states is nearly non-existant here.

Actually, the felon votes were not brought up until the Republican Party's lawsuit in May - long after Gregoire had taken the lead. It was an attempt to reduce the number of Democrat votes. In addition, the judge in that case left in most of the felon votes, so they were counted in the total that led to Gregoire's victory.

My mistake here ami, what I remember most is how the first two recounts came back for Rossi, and Gregoire wouldn't concede, but when the third one came back for her she was on TV DEMANDING that Rossi concede.  Since the elections, I'll admit that she's done some good middle of the road things, but I also think that she's cold, slimy and manipulative.  She has the flat unblinking eyes of a rock lizard (or a fish) and I dread seeing her on TV, though no more so than former Governor Mike Lowry (aka the political Rodney Dangerfield Impersonator).

[Michael Tee]

<<Apparently numbered ballots are common. This from Texas . . . >>


Numbered ballots in themselves aren't a problem.  They could be a help in detecting ballots added to a box that didn't come from voters in that box's polling station.  The problem was when the numbering was cross-referenced to the voter registration, so from the ballot's number, it would be apparent who cast it.  That's the end right there of the secret ballot.  Frankly I'm amazed that there hasn't been some huge shitstorm of outrage over something like this.

[BT]

The only reason to cross reference would be in the case of a challenge.

I wouldn't be adverse to a disinterested third party doing the cross referencing.