Ranks of absentee voters swell (OH)

[OhioChick]

Thursday, September 28, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter

The push to get Cuyahoga County residents to vote through absentee ballots is working, with more than 40,000 voters already signed up and officials expecting to top off at about 100,000.

Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Michael Vu told a City Club of Cleveland audience that he expects more people will vote absentee this November than did for the 2004 presidential election. About 96,000 voted absentee in '04.

The high number of absentee voters does create a problem, Vu told the audience Wednesday. Because the county has only 20 optical scan machines, counting all the absentee ballots could take more than a day.

At past elections board meetings, officials have discussed leasing more optical scan machines and asking Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for approval to start scanning absentee ballots before the election.

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1159432673254700.xml&coll=2

[DRoseDARs]

1. Ken orders new "scanners," company "accidently" delivers new shredders. nt

[wakeme2008]

2. I know in Tampa the pre-count absentee ballots a

couple days before the election. The call in all political parties that want to attend and do the pre-count. All absentee ballots show up as an "X" precinct. IMHO works well.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Early Voting is better

and less susceptible to fraud.

The Repugs love absentee voting because there are so many ways to cheat from requesting ballots for 'inactive voters' and voting for them, to going house to house in the poorer neighborhood and targeting illiterate people to 'help' them vote.

Voting in person is best and going to Early Voting will allow you to resolve any problem with your registration before it's too late.

[niallmac]

3. "...could take more than a day..."

So what? Can't we slow down a little to insure our democracy actually works?
I say count the votes by hand if you need to. What exactly is the rush?

[LiberalFighter]

7. It took less than a day in the 1800's NOT

Same day election results are not a necessity. They are a media demand.

I agree count votes by hand. It worked in the old days. In many places it was an all day affair for the voter cause they had to travel to the county seat to vote. Not the precinct less than a mile from a person's residence. An example in our county we have just over 250 precincts and voting places. There would had been only one voting location back in the old days. Of course the population was smaller too.

Even today, all towns, counties do not need to use electronic voting machines. Paper ballots should be sufficient and I believe also more cost efficient. How long should it take to count ballots in a voting place with 800 registered voters and less than half vote?

[MeDeMax]

5. they are upto something

I have received 3 calls in the last week from the Ohio GOP asking us to vote absentee,

"To maintain republican control, we need every vote we can get"

the message said.

[papau]

6. Good as they avoid E-voting but Bad as GOP fraud uses Absentee cons

as in the 20,000 votes found in Florida that were sent out by the GOP directly in the 2000 election (a "minor fraud" as the GOP voter had not requested the form and may have voted twice "by mistake")

[SKKY]

8. A higher number of absentee voters seems to me an attempt...

...to "hide" invalid votes among valid ones. Thus, making it harder to trace/challenge/verify if these
are valid votes cast by valid voters.

[gratuitous]

9. People are anxious to vote for the corrupt status quo

At least, that's what we're supposed to believe from the stories out of Ohio in 2004 (when folks stood in line for hours in Democratic strongholds) and now again this year. People are anxious as all get out to ratify another two years of fraud, corruption and dysfunctional government. Yeah. Uh huh. That sounds about right.

[texpatriot2004]

10. Good! Glad to hear it. nm

[Dr.Phool]

11. Pukes will bring out the caging lists. Like they did in Florida '04.

Anyone challenged on them, won't be there to appeal, and their ballot goes right in the shredder.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. I'm sure Ken will do ANYTHING to help ensure the elections

run smoothly and fairly, right?

[Peace Patriot]

13. Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot! It's a PROTEST aimed at

a huge boycott of electronic voting, rendering these election theft machines obsolete, making the election officials who purchased them look like the corrupt fools they are, giving election reformers real clout, and expressing the will of the people: PAPER BALLOTS HAND-COUNTED! Transparent elections! Ousting the Diebold Congress and the Bush Junta!

Nothing is more insecure than an electronic vote, "tabulated" by Bushite corporations, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and nothing is more cooperative with enriching these Bushite corporations, and enhancing their power, than voting on their machines.

Don't cooperate! Vote Absentee!

See my post on the Absentee Ballot protest: "What do you expect from the Diebold Congress?"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2851762

It includes ways to help safeguard your AB vote--but we must realize that no vote is safe with Bushite corporations controlling our election system. We must bust this system--and the only way to do it is to REFUSE TO VOTE ON THEIR MACHINES!