Under current law, county election officials are unable to start the process of counting mail-in ballots until 7 am in election day, when they are doing 10,000 other things. This can and does result in delays in many jurisdictions. Throughout the state, county officials have been asking the state legislature to allow elections offices to begin this tally sooner. The state house has complied with a measure that will allow pre-canvassing to begin seven days before an actual election. Under this bill, the results will be tabulated, but may not be published or reported until polls close. This bill passed in a 102-99 vote along party lines, with Republicans opposed. It now advances to the state senate, where Republicans are in control.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Thursday, May 09, 2024
14 comments:
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NARRATOR: "But everyone knew the counts would be leaked immediately."
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling to understand why the GOP would be opposed to this?
ReplyDeleteThe toothpaste is out of the tube for Mail-In voting - getting rid of it would be extremely difficult and unpopular which are 2 things politicians of any stripe always avoid.
Allowing a weeks head start will eliminate unwanted delays and confusion on Election Day by removing the whole "overnight dump".
I do think a whole week might be a bit too much in terms of "keeping a lid on things" where leaks ahead of Election Day could impact turnouts but would think a compromise of something like 72 hours would be adequate.
Great idea!
ReplyDeleteWhy is one party so in favor and the other so opposed? That usually means it will benefit the supporting party and harm the opposing party. That's bad law and bad government, no? How about a bipartisan solution? You have to want one first, vs a bald-faced power play, though.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans opposed this bc it only addresses one issue. I personally am uncomfortable with the bill as written. I do think elections officials should be able to pre-canvass sooner than 7 am election day. But I doubt very much that the results will be kept quiet. There is little doubt in my mind that whichever party is in control of county administration will know these results seven days in advance and will use this to drive turnout in races where they are behind. I would limit the time at which it could start until three days before the election. I would also provide for harsh criminal penalties against anyone in government who discloses this information.
ReplyDeleteNO WAY!!
ReplyDeleteRepublicans need to embrace the mail in voting, although this is a separate issue.
The highest court in the land, The SUPREME Court could not even keep a lid on the Roe V Wade decision. Oh, and no one every figured out who squealed.... :0, yeah right!
Loose lips sink ships, and no looser lips than those involved in ALL things policitcal, even elections.
Agree with the 3 day rule and significant penalties for disclosure. I'm sure there could be various controls put in place to limit and safeguard leaks and spoilers.
ReplyDeleteDoes the county have a count of mail in ballots received prior to election day? Maybe establish thresholds where if the count exceeds a certain number they can start the counting 3 days in advance and limit the # of ballots each day to 1/3 of the inventory.
I guess an issue could be that we'd be looking at these counts being conducted over a weekend which could be costly.
Maybe the easiest solution is a simple 24 hour head start...
I find it odd that when we used to have mechanical (lever) machines and one day of voting we were able to count all votes by 11pm that evening.
ReplyDeleteYet now without that crush of voters on one day and modern electronic machines, we are somehow unable to get the votes tabulated in a timely manner.
Maybe it’s just that our government has grown too incompetent to get a simple task like vote counting right, but they really shouldn’t need ANY additional days to get the job done.
Under the Election Code, no reports can be run during pre-canvassing and can only be run once canvassing starts at 8 pm on Election Day). Therefore, there would be no results to leak prior to 8 pm on Election Day since the ballots would be processed but not actually tabulated until that point. The same is the case now - ballots are processed starting at 7 am on Election Day but no results are available until 8 pm. The only change would extending the amount of time to open envelopes and unfold and scan ballots.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are not a voting human. This right here, your question is the reason for this bill. The CANVASSING AND TALLYING of the mail in ballots is why election results are now delayed. Machine votes are electronic and instantaneous- mail ins can’t be opened, stacked, tallied until starting at 7am on the day of the election. Education is key my friend!
DeleteRepublicans oppose mail-in ballots because their cult leader told them to, but that back fired on them so now they are coming around with their tails between their legs. Keep opposing them, it is to our advantage.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're all-in for cheating.
DeleteBad idea. Not sure about other counties but in this one you have the very political partisan Executive in charge of elections. His boy Steve Barron is always hanging around the election office at that time of year. So, no one can trust that games won't get played. Everyone at the courthouse knows Barron can't keep a secret or keep his mouth shut. So, no!
ReplyDeleteImmediate family members should be able to drop off mail in ballots in drop boxes. One can deliver anothers mail in ballot to a US mail box, or walk it out to a curbside mailbox, but it is illegal to drop off a spouse or parents ballot in a drop box. What matters is the signature match on the outside envelope.
ReplyDelete