I think I know how dead people vote... (1 Viewer)

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Wait a sec, Scott, your folks named you Donald MacDonald? I'm sorry. I guess they arn't planning on going to a GOOD nursing home when they get older. Is there some family name I don't know about, that just seems like a mean thing to do to a kid.

I actually mentioned this in a child naming thread a while back, but my dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all named Donald MacDonald. Some day my three year old son (Austin) will greatly appreciate my breaking with family tradition, but my father was none too pleased.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

There's a woman at work named Kelly Kelly. And that's her married name. She can't blame anyone else!

 

[Dominik Droscher]

In Germany every person who is legally allowed to vote is sent a card by mail. You have to take this card to the polling booth. If you forgot or lost it, you can still vote with showing your identify card (which you Americans should really start to have, makes a lot of things easier ).
Using this system deception is almost impossible. I am really surprised to see that it is so easy to cheat.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Danny R

You might be the best to ask about actual voter irregularities. It seems like the potential is there to abuse the system, but how often to we actually see someone come in, vote, and then later that day have another person - the actual registered voter - come in and want to vote? If there were more than one or a few per precinct I don't think it would be earth shattering. In elections generations ago, politicians sometimes had a significant constituency residing in the local cemetaries. Political parties who were notorious for this type of fraud have - I hope - been brought under control.

When I voted yesterday, I signed next to my name on a computer sheet. If anyone had come in later and tried to vote with my name a red flag would have been raised.

We still use punch cards here. I have never had a problem with them, but would suggest that in the actual booth or some place near by that a reader would put up on a screen the way the card would be read by the computer. That would save having to put in a lot of expensive touch screen machines.

I think the Florida 2000 election shows that the bigger problem is to get the indent of the voter correct. Spending a lot of money is not really the answer. Creativity always takes second place to spending money where government is concerned.

 

[Danny R]

but how often to we actually see someone come in, vote, and then later that day have another person - the actual registered voter - come in and want to vote?

It hasn't ever happened in any precinct I've been in at least, so I would think it is fairly rare.

If anyone had come in later and tried to vote with my name a red flag would have been raised.

A red flag would definatly happen in Georgia as well if someone tries to vote twice (I can't speak for other states methods.)

If a voter came in and tried to vote twice, the first problem we would see is that their voter certificate was not in the file (it had already been pulled with the first voter).

The master list would then be looked at, and we'd see that their name was already marked as voting. This would get the poll manager involved, and we'd pull the voter certificate and compare the signature there with the person standing before us.

I'm not certain what would happen after that, but the county office would certainly be called and procedures for voter fraud followed.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

In Missouri, I had to show a govt.(not necessarily photo) id.