G. Bush left a message on my answering machine..

[fencesitter]

about making sure I apply for an absentee ballot, and we're fighting for freedom and all. I deleted it halfway. This morning my mail came at my business and there was a mailer from the GOP with an absentee ballot request form along with a bunch of campaign propaganda. My favorite was John Kerry is against affordable health care. But what's with this absentee ballot thing? Anyone else getting this? I live in SE Penna.

[Heddi]

1. They want you to cast your vote now, early

so that way come November, you won't have a chance to change your mind.

I think they're hoping for the "Undecided but leans Republican sometimes but looking at Dem this election" crowd. Vote Republican NOW, get the ballot in the mail NOW, so that you can't change your mind THEN

[fencesitter]

2. Ahhh. can I vote twice?

This seems like a good opportunity for fraud, this voting early (and often).

[goclark]

Absentee votes are counted first

is what I've heard.
They want to make SURE that Republicans vote. No mistakes,can't get too busy or in the hospital that day.

We had training from the California Democratic Party and they too encourage Absentee voting.

As far as the Thugs are concerned,who knows what tricks are up their sleeves.They may call an "alert" that day and all of the poor people and disabled will not be able to get to their polling place.

Just today I heard that Florida's primary election was short on polling places. Say, before the hurricane, they were to have 50 polling places in a particular county,now that county has 20 polling places. Huum, so many people that won't be able to get to the polls. You can believe they will get their side to the polls.

[Heddi]

6. a friend and I were talking about this last night

b/c there were a post or three on DU about it.

She said the same thing that you are---Republicans, get your absentee ballots in early, because WHO KNOWS what will happen on Election Day????? Especially with all this talk about IMPENDING TERRORIST ATTACKS TO THWART OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESS OF APPOINTING A PRESIDENT FROM ON HIGH....

After the 2000 fiasco, I thought "Gee, maybe next time I should vote absentee so my vote will be counted" but now I just don't know. I mean, the board of electors can't be held responsible if mail is lost, misdirected, or destroyed in transit, can they? Once that little envelope is placed in the mail, WHO KNOWS if it was received. Of course, the same goes for electronic voting as well.....it's as if (as if!) there's no 'safe' way to vote anymore. No matter what we do, we're screwed BY THEM.

As an aside---three years ago I moved to Seattle from S.C. I think this was around the time of the last big Election---Congress? Senate? Can't remember--anyways, one day I go to my mailbox in Seattle and lo and behold there's an absentee ballot in my box from South Carolina. I called up the SC Election people and told them that I don't live in the state anymore (I wanna say this was at least a year after I moved out here) and never requested an absentee ballot. They said "Sure you did" "Uh, no I didn't". They had my NEW address (which wasn't the original one I lived in when we first moved to Seattle) and said I had called to request one (??) So I told them something must have gotten screwed up, the lady was really nice and said to just destroy the ballot and she'd remove me from the list of registered voters in the state.

No more than a week later, I got ANOTHER ballot from SC in the mail. Called them back again, was told basically the same thing. Two weeks later, I get a THIRD absentee ballot in the mail. That was the last one I got, and at that point I figured whoever was running that place was just two cans short of a sixpack and wasn't worth dealing with anymore.

I never figured out WHO would request an absentee ballot for me, HOW they got my address, or WHY they would sign me up for a race I wasn't elegible to vote in???

[AFSCME girl]

3. A friend of mine got this same

message on his answering machine. We are in Southeastern Michigan...Macomb County to be exact - which is 65% repuke..ARGH!
:puke:

[Retrograde]

4. feeling neglected in California

and I'm registered as an Independent. George must not love me, sniff.

Actually, both parties seem to be largely ignoring this area, which is fine since we don't get all the commercials. I vote absentee about 25% of the time, and plan to do so this year, partly because of the touch-screen problems, partly because I'm planning on being out of the area the weekend before and I'm expecting airline delays to be part of the October surprise.

[realFedUp]

5. Phone Spam huh? n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. He got me too