Washblog

when I lived in East King County. Our family always valued the community aspect of going to a local place and seeing our neighbors and visiting while in line and so on. Back when most voted this way, campaigning was far easier. The 72 hour push and all.
But even today, far more vote by mail and campaigns must run two efforts and as time goes on people will vote closer to the ballot mailing date making the final push more and more cumbersome.
Also, as a democrat who cares about winning state wide races, seeing all the other counties going this way and King County holding off is a great concern as this will reduce the democratic vote.
One thing I would look at is the idea of maintaining drop off points open till 8pm across the county for at least two years or untill the use falls off. People who note it is election day as they drive to work should have one final shot at voting when they get home on election day.

Finally, the time to take this step is in 07 in order to get the kinks out prior to 08.

Peace

 

by Particle Man on Fri Nov 10, 2006 at 12:02:18 PM PST

problem.

The more steps, the more stuff goes wrong.

The more rules, regulations, laws, the more steps.

Someone somewhere must have put together flow chart models with the cost in time and cost in money for each step?

Will anyone ever be able to figure out what is a waste of effort and what matters without a good model?  

Everyone argues about this or that implemenation of that rule or this law or this requirement ...

has anyone ever been paid to figure out

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK, ALL THE TIME, EASILY?

Wanna know the REAL problem?

American management fucking rot, PRIVATE and PUBLIC sector.  

Rarely are the people with the most cost effective ideas rewarded.  Way too many of those in charge are the worst ass kissers and best back stabbers and best empire builders, and they are in charge of the policies, AND, THE POCKETBOOK.

This voting thing looks just like education and public transport and health care ...(and making steel and making cars ...) ?

A haven for people competent at getting graduate degrees and competent at little else?

We are gonna wake up one of these days and we'll need 10,000 dollars to buy a peso or a yen, AND

all our cars will be parked growing freaking moss cuz we can't afford the gas, AND

20 or 30 million un-employed over educated professional /managers are going to be ... writing powerpoints to each other in the sand?

rmm.  

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

by rmdSeaBos on Fri Nov 10, 2006 at 05:13:12 PM PST

[My thoughts from election day]

I took my girlfriend to vote today. The polling place was almost empty. Then I went to vote in another precinct. It too was almost empty. When I put my ballot into the machine, a Diebold Accuvote, the register counted only 118 votes by noon.

Of course many voters are choosing the convenience of voting by mail. It's easier. It's convenient. Who cares if it's secure or accurate? Americans are more than willing to sacrifice Democracy on the altar of convenience. Heck, half the country doesn't even vote anyway... so the death of the polling place and the end of the secret ballot is the all-too-predictable result. But it is sad to watch. The old folks that typically staff the polling sites are still there, the voters have simply disappeared. And soon the poll sites will disappear as well.

In King County, WA, the county executive Ron Sims has been pushing hard to move the entire region to Vote By Mail (VBM), or forced absentee voting. Our Secretary of State, Sam Reed, is also a staunch supporter of Vote By Mail systems. And the King County Council this spring voted 5 Democrats to 4 Republicans to close most of the polling places in the county. King County, one of very largest counties in the country, is a bell weather for what is to come. All around the country "no-excuse" absentee ballot use is on the rise, as those we elected to safeguard democracy are slowly and steadily dismanteling the traditional safeguards instead.

2006 is sure to be a watershed year for vote by mail problems around the country. Why just across the water from the City of Shoreline where I sit writing, the Eastside's Congressional Race, Burner versus Reichert, is tied 49% to 49% going to the polls. So we may get a first hand example of just how long elections will drag out when absentee ballot use is high, and the race is too close to call. It wouldn't be the first time King County's Election Department  caught national attention. It probably will not be the last.

But the real scope of the problem forced vote by mail systems present didn't quite strick me until today. I was standing around waiting for my girlfriend to finish voting when I saw King County's official list of poll sites. The list is the size of a standard rock concert poster with a tiny type font listing a thousand or more poll sites. Browsing that list helped me understand the size and extent of the civic institution called the polling place. It's a big part of our Democracy with tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers. But if the Ron Sims and Sam Reeds of the world have their way, next year those old people won't have but one or two polling sites to staff, and in a few short years, the system by which we count votes in this country will have passed away.

Standing there today it was sad to watch, this death of the polling place. From touchscreen voting machines to vote by mail schemes, I can hear the death rattle in the lungs of Democracy. The fight now is is more like CPR, it's too late for excercise and good diet.

by Gentry Lange on Sat Nov 11, 2006 at 03:47:32 PM PST

This issue will be moot, we will all vote by mail, and we won't have to deal with this crap anymore.

Ongoing absentees in King County are what, 75 percent of voters? So when you're discussing "50 percent of poll voters" you're discussing 50 percent of 25 percent, which is 12.5 percent of all voters.

The percentage of ongoing absentee voters shows a steady upward trend because THAT IS THE WAY MORE AND MORE PEOPLE PREFER TO VOTE.

The statement "many voters have been signed up as absentee voters against their wishes" is unsupportable. You're just making stuff up. What you call, with nice Rovian spin, "forced mail voting" (partial-birth abortion, anyone?) is, demonstrably, representing the growing will of the people.

The other argument I hear, that "oh, oh! abusive husbands will force their wives to fill out their ballots a certain way!" is also bogus. Even if it happens in isolated instances, that's a relationship problem and not a structural one. If a wife is in such a situation, her need is greater than that of the voting system, and poll voting will not make her relationship any less abusive.

When the only people left in King County flaying this rotting corpse are Jason and his five friends, will the taxpayers then be obligated to pay for keeping empty polling places open?

This post is an insult to people's intelligence, and front-paging it is a worse one.

If perception is reality, then the world must be flat and the sun must revolve around it.

by ivan on Fri Nov 10, 2006 at 07:12:32 AM PST