Absentee ballots a mess

[Carolab]

I read an article that if someone were looking to steal an election, absentee ballots are the easiest way. They can be "lost", mangled, ignored, or otherwise manipulated...Looks like that might be true:

Des Moines, September 29th, 2004 - It's clearly a bad start for the absentee ballot process in Iowa. Thousands of mistakes are in the mail. Absentee ballots are supposed to be the key to a record voter turnout, but it looks like the master plan is coming up short.

Secretary of State Chet Culver is putting absentee voting on hold because names were left off the ballot.

In Plymouth County, ballots don't even list the candidates in the 5th Congressional District. In Jasper county, a candidate who shouldn't be on the ballot for the District 36 race is, a nd in southeast Iowa, ballots in four counties don't include the race of an associate district judge.

Right now, 200,000 of these ballots are in the mail across Iowa. The Secretary of State says if you receive a ballot with errors, you can request a correct version up until November 1st.

Aside from problems with the actual ballots, there are concerns absentee ballots aren't secure. The Wall Street Journal raised the question this week. As the Journal noted, Iowa has state-certified couriers. These are people who pick up absentee ballots. Some wonder if those couriers can be trusted to properly deliver ballots to county auditors.

(more)
http://whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2361927&nav=LotCRQD8

[truthisfreedom]

1. at least if you put it in an envelope and mail it, nobody will know what

it says (unless homeland security is being used to x-ray ballots. and wouldn't that be a hoot.)

[sofa king]

2. Except in Palm Beach County

Where "Madame Butterfly" came up with the bright idea to put party affiliation checkboxes on the fucking envelopes.

Though she lost the election, Greg Palast alleges that some 15,000 absentee ballots disappeared. And Theresa LePore is going to oversee the November elections as a lame duck.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17570

[Longhorn]

3. My son received his absentee ballot at his Marine base in Japan

this week and the return envelope was sealed shut. He said he will have to mangle it to put the ballot in it and he's afraid they won't accept it.

[Polemonium]

4. It is a mess, but for overseas absentee voters

Remember to use the Federal-Write in Ballot, available at your consulate or Democrats Abroad.