Provisional Ballots/Voting

[jilbagh]

With 1.5 million Americans in Florida mistakenly turned away from the polls because of clerical errors or other problems, and having their votes not counted in the 2000 elections. Should provisional ballots be accepted and counted?

(provisional ballots is held until officials determine if the person was entitled to vote. If they should have been allowed to vote, the ballot counts; if not, it's thrown out)

Not counting the provisional ballots unconstitutionally disenfranchises voters who may not know their polling place, or be a victim of a "clerical error" or even voter suppression.

Federal judges in Michigan and Ohio have ruled in favor of counting the ballots if they were cast in the right county, village, township, city.

[dstyle]

I still don't like the whole registering thing, if you're a citizen and can show validity of being such, they should let you vote. I know people are going to say its going to be chaos and such, but too me it seems odd this whole register form thing.

[Siggie]

I still don't like the whole registering thing, if you're a citizen and can show validity of being such, they should let you vote. I know people are going to say its going to be chaos and such, but too me it seems odd this whole register form thing.

What are they going to do? Carry their passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers with them to vote? What if you forget them? Then you're inconvenienced and have to go home and find it and bring it. It is too much. How hard is it to register to vote?

[jilbagh]

I still don't like the whole registering thing, if you're a citizen and can show validity of being such, they should let you vote. I know people are going to say its going to be chaos and such, but too me it seems odd this whole register form thing.

how else are they going to call you in for jury duty lol

but filling out the form and having it processed by the county is good to check validity of citizenship or to make sure there isn't multi registries.

voter fraud is a concern this year, more than the past. Especially with illegal voter registration schemes like in Oregon and Nevada where Republican based organizations were paying $5 for each Republican voter form and $0 for those who registereed Democrat. In some cases the Democrat filled forms were thrown away. (there have been many registration workers stepping up and talking)...

[choban]

What are they going to do? Carry their passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers with them to vote? What if you forget them? Then you're inconvenienced and have to go home and find it and bring it. It is too much. How hard is it to register to vote?

Whachu talkin about wilis? Your voting for the next president of the country is that much to ask for? To bring your Passport or wutever it might be. If you go to your basketball game and forget your ball shoes you don't play. If you go to school and you forget to bring your homework you get a late mark deducted. I hope the person voting for the next president of the world has enough smarts to remember a passport.

[ckBejug]

how else are they going to call you in for jury duty lol

but filling out the form and having it processed by the county is good to check validity of citizenship or to make sure there isn't multi registries.

voter fraud is a concern this year, more than the past. Especially with illegal voter registration schemes like in Oregon and Nevada where Republican based organizations were paying $5 for each Republican voter form and $0 for those who registereed Democrat. In some cases the Democrat filled forms were thrown away. (there have been many registration workers stepping up and talking)...

You get called for jury duty anyway, even if you have not signed up to vote. As long as you have a drivers licence. Isn't that how it is?

[Siggie]

Whachu talkin about wilis? Your voting for the next president of the country is that much to ask for? To bring your Passport or wutever it might be. If you go to your basketball game and forget your ball shoes you don't play. If you go to school and you forget to bring your homework you get a late mark deducted. I hope the person voting for the next president of the world has enough smarts to remember a passport.

Given the number of people that vote. It doesn't make sense to make it even more difficult by having them remember to bring something they don't normally carry.
Remembering a passport isn't about smarts. I forget things all the time does that make me stupid?
It's not like a wake up in the morning and think "IT'S ELECTION DAY!!!!" We all have other things going on and it happens.
It's much easier to just register to vote once.

[patlajan]

Provisional ballets would be needless if voting places had the capacity to process all voter registration forms. The real question is why don't they? Why do we have to come up with schemes to be able to process all registrations? The whole things is stupid.

[jilbagh]

Provisional ballets would be needless if voting places had the capacity to process all voter registration forms. The real question is why don't they? Why do we have to come up with schemes to be able to process all registrations? The whole things is stupid.

I think their argument for on the spot registering is that they don't have sufficient time to check any possible inaccuracies.

In Iowa, during the Iowa caucus (primaries) they were able to register voters same day, but that was done on a 'provisional' basis.

I have a plan. When obtaining your drivers license, register to vote. Or they can make a seperate ID card. They program the magnetic stripe on the back of the license or in some states the barcode to have your voter registration information. When you go to vote on the day of an election, you swipe it on a machine to either enable you to vote on an electonic voting device, or swipe it to enable the polling worker to hand you a ballot.

In the words of the Guiness beer commercial "BRILLIANT!"