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Early Voting?


krys
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I don't understand why some states allow this.

I understand absentee votes, but early voting doesn't make sense to me. Would somebody who knows about this please enlighten me?

What are some of the reasons people are allowed to vote early. Can anybody vote early?

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Any registered voter in Florida may vote early.

The advantages:

1. You don't have to make sure you vote at the right precinct. You precinct comes to you, so to speak. The technology is there so that when you arrive at the polling place, you are given a ballot that matches the one you would have received at your proper precinct. For folks like me, who do not KNOW the correct precinct, this is handy. You DO have to show up in the right county, though.

2. Ostensibly, its purpose is to cut the lines on election day. I don't quite understand this, as the lines on early voting days are longer. But c'est la guerre.

3. It makes it easier for those who will not be in town on Election Day but don't want to deal with the hassle of an absentee ballot (which, it turns out, has been QUITE the hassle here in Broward County).

4. Fewer and fewer states and municipalities recognize election day as a "day off," and the number is even lower for private businesses. On one day, you may not find the time to vote. But over a two week period, it might be easier.

One major drawback: Once you've voted, it's just like casting the ballot on Election Day. You cannot change your mind.

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Well - I'm glad I asked. Now it not only makes sense, but also has a lot of advantages...maybe the whole country should do it...not for 2 weeks, but maybe for the weekend preceeding the election closing sometime on Tuesday nite.

Thanks for the explanation.

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There are safeguards in place.

The names of absentee voters are recorded before they're counted. If someone votes early, or on election day, their absentee ballot will be thrown away. Once you've voted, the computer system has you down. If I tried to vote again, I would be stopped as soon as I tried to check in.

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early and absentee voting are handled similiar here to Raf's expressions. I turned my absenteee ballot in at an early voting place, no lines, no postal delays.

NOTE: Bear in mind folks, absentee ballots in my state, (and I expect in others) MUST BE DELIVERED TO THE COUNTY CLERK BY THE CLOSE OF THE POLLS. IF YOU HAVE NOT MAILED IT ALREADY, I RECOMMEND YOU DELIVER IT YOURSELF. POSTMARKS DO NOT COUNT!

I think there may be some exceptions to that rule, like for military personelle, but in general, if you want it to count, you better get it there on time.

Because of the checks to be sure people do not vote twice, the vote counts are not certified by the clerk until some weeks after the election. They will have a count, but it is not oofficial until certified.

Also, here (CO), a list is given to the polling places of those in the precinct who have REQUESTED absentee ballots. If a voter claims to have lost or decided not to vote absentee, they will be allowed to cast a PROVISIONAL ballot. These are set aside, and only counted after the names are compared with the final list of those who did send absentee ballots. This allows people to vote even if they requested but did not complete an absentee ballot.

Unless it, by some unexpected quirk, is a runaway election, I suspect the winner will be in doubt for several days, and maybe alot longer as the checks and balances that have been put in place to ensure accuracy have run their course.

~HAP

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Don't want to waste a thread for this so this is close enough.....

Ted Kennedy dies and goes to see St. Peter...

St. Peter: Come in my office and have a seat.

Ted K: (notices a whole bunch of clocks on shelves) What are all these clocks for?

St. P: Those are lie clocks; everybody has one. Every time someone lies, the clock moves.

Ted K: Whose clock is that? It doesn't look like it's ever moved.

St. P: Oh, that's Mother Teresa's. She never ever lied; not even once.

Ted K: What about that one; it looks like it's moved maybe 4 times?

St. P: That's Abe Lincoln's. He told some lies when he was a kid, but that was pretty much it.

Ted K: So where's John Kerry's clock?

St. P: Oh. That one is in God's office; He uses it for a ceiling fan.

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The Racistpublicans are up to their dirty tricks, as usual. I'm suprised they haven't started lynching non-Aryans yet. Here's a sample of a letter from Republicans meant to discourage blacks from voting.

milwaukee.gif

Unfortunately, this is just one example of many of how the Republican party is out to make their fraud last time look tame in comparison. They've already disenfranchised voters in Oregon, Nevada, Ohio, and Florida, and they are screwing over voters in every state. Nevermind the voting machines from Diebold which according to the president of Diebold will deliver the presidential election to Bush.

Even if Bush were to somehow win the electoral votes he needs, his supporters have committed enough fraud already that there is no way it could ever be proven that he would have a legit win.

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The thread got derailed because some folks just can't leave politics in the political forum where it belongs. I deliberately put this question in this forum because I figured there may be folks who don't visit the polital jousting matches who might like to know the answer too.

I figure maybe 1 or 2 more crass jokes will send it to the Silly Stuff forum. Steve was just teasing Raf about Florida because of the issues which surfaced there in 2000.

I suspect that if the TV hadn't prematurely delcared Bush the winner, the election may have turned out differenty. Who knows how many people on the left coast never bothered to vote figuring it was all over anyway and their vote didn't count. I wonder to this day if that was the biggest debacle and people keep pushing Florida in our faces to cause us to forget that little tidbit. But now, we'll never know.

P-Mosh never overlooks an opportunity to push his brand of politics in our faces. I think he'd even do it in the Prayer Room if he had the chance.

Well - - I learned. That will teach me to ask a question or pose an issue in the Open Forum. I'm done!

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Krys - don't let one or two bad apples spoil your fun.

And I wasn't teasing - I was serious in my question about people that have registered to vote in both Florida and New York, and get absentee ballots from Florida while in New York. Are there safeguards for that kind of thing?

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quote:
What is in place to prevent somebody from voting via absentee or early voting and voting on election day?

I have been working with the town all week on absentee ballots.

A request comes in by phone and I bring an absentee application to the voter. The voter fills the application out and I return it to the town and they give me the absentee's ballot. I return to the voters house and wait for them to fill it out and place it in a sealed envelope and then I "NOTORIZE" it and return it to the town. The name of the voter is entered into the computer as voted. Envelopes are stored in a safe untill election day and then opened and counted. On election day a print out is made of all registered voters and it is noted on it if they have already voted absentee. When a voter walks into the polls they give their name and it is checked in the printout to see if they had already voted or not. That how we do it in Mexico Maine. All done by hand.

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Krys-

I apologize if I played a part in the sidebar. I also was a little peeved about the thread not staying on track. I think you did well to put it here, and I was not talking about Steve derailing it- I took his question as reasonable. It was the two off target jokes that ticked me off.

~HAP

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Oh Shoot! I just looked up and found that Nevada has early voting.

Fred was here while it was going on and he's working in California and probably can't get away to come here to vote.

Oh, well! Maybe next time.

Thanks for telling me about it.

I think anything that makes voting more accessible to the people is great.

p.s. over 33,000 had voted by 10/29/04, which is when the early voting here in Washoe County (Reno NV area) ended.

p.p.s. You can't even vote twice on the presidential poll at the Greasespot Cafe. I'm sure controls are in place to prevent double-voting.

Kit

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