[EL] Change early vote?

Fri Jun 5 18:57:39 PDT 2015

For what it's worth, I would support 20 day early voting without the
"regret/reversal" option, because I think the state should do more to
encourage turnout (at least deliberative turnout - I'm not always (or maybe
ever) for combining things like city and state elections, because then
people turn out to vote for governor or president and then vote
non-deliberatively vote for city candidates based on ethnic interpretation
of last name or whatever and it weakens that city's sense of
sovereignty/legitimacy/autonomy/validity...; sorry for the bad
parenthetical tangent)...

I just like it a lot more with that option.

I think of it in the contractual sense.

I don't think the convenience of voting early is really enough
"consideration" for the voter to forfeit their right to 20 additional days
of contemplation.

I also think it overestimates people's ability to commit to ballots which
can have 20+ contests on them.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if most voters would have voted
differently on at least one (probably down ballot) race had they waited
until Election Day.

I worry it robs us of electoral sophistication.

People get excited about who they want to be president. They want to vote
asap and be very early to tweet "Proud to have just cast my vote for the
first female president"

And their yearning to tweet that will prevent them from thinking about the
downballot stuff (let them vote, (tweet,) and then come back on Election
Day and cast a proper ballot with some school board deliberation).

Back to my "contractual" concerns; it feels somewhat unconscionable to
expect voters to commit positions on 20+ races, while the campaigns go on
for 20 more days.

Personally, I have always had grave concerns for the democratic legitimacy
of state and municipal republics (from relative disinterest). I fear that
this propagates the disparagement of 'certain mindset voters' in those
republics. (Maybe that parenthetical wasn't an awful tangent)

Essentially, the exchange of consideration is unfair, and voters should be
*entitled* to still show up on Election Day and cast a more-deliberative
ballot.

Also, I think it's laziness, not lack of regret, which causes the rarity of
regret ballots. Also, I wonder if many vote, just not to get shamed for not
voting, as there is a record of whether you voted, therein explaining
disinterest in changing their vote.

Thomas Cares

On Friday, June 5, 2015, Paul Gronke <paul.gronke at gmail.com> wrote:

> A few quick responses.
>
> First, there are a few states that allow an individual to "recast" a vote
> that has already been cast early.  I wish I could name them all--I would be
> the one to know--but off the top of my head, all I can say is that I know
> there are a few.  And my recollection is that there are an extremely low
> number of "regret" voters, those who choose to recast the ballot.
>
> I have also conducted multiple surveys on this same question, asking a
> variety of things, such as "when did you make your decision," "why did you
> choose to vote early," "do you regret casting an early ballot."  While
> Thomas Cares's experiences as a candidate and in political clubs may be
> different, the data I have collected indicate that virtually no voters
> indicate that they would have changed their vote.
>
> I would not personally use a word like "corrupting" the political process,
> but it is likely that early voting alters the dynamics of the campaign.  If
> you think this through, however, I don't think the conclusion is as black
> and white as Thomas makes it out to be.
>
> It is true that under an early voting system, campaigns must get
> information out to the citizenry earlier.  We could argue that this is a
> good thing because it allows this information to be disseminated,
> evaluated, and potentially responded to.  Contrast this with a system where
> a last minute attack ad is released or a story planted in the media the day
> before Election Day.
>
> In addition, it's very clear that those voters who choose to cast an
> "early" early ballot--say 20 days before--are precisely the kinds of voters
> who have already made up their minds, and for whom the last 20 days don't
> really make much of a difference.  The typical early voter is more
> politically engaged, more politically informed, and more partisan. These
> are just the kinds of people who make up their minds early.
>
> Election calendars are always artificial in some sense, and it's not clear
> to me that having a 20 day voting period automatically leads to serious
> problems in the system, at least no one has really demonstrated this in a
> convincing way.  This does not mean it can't be done.
>
> I think having a "regret" balloting system would address some of the
> concerns raised by Thomas.  I'll try to track down the states that already
> do this.  I just wanted to chime in that the idea that early voting
> encourages a large amount of uninformed voting has not been sustained  by
> any empirical studies that I am aware of.
>
>
> ---
> Paul Gronke
>
> Professor, Reed College and
> Daniel B. German Endowed Visiting Professor, Appalachian State University
>
> Director, Early Voting Information Center
> 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
> Portland OR 97202
>
> EVIC: http://earlyvoting.net
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 4, 2015, at 5:20 PM, Greenberg, Kevin <
> Kevin.Greenberg at flastergreenberg.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
> > In Pennsylvania (what I know) anyone can (and in fact must if in the
> county) vote in person even if they submitted an absentee or alternative
> ballot.  For that reason all absentee/alternative ballots are checked
> against poll books before tabulation.
> >
> > Don't know how feasible that is in a "all mail" or similar election and
> wouldn't work at all if early votes are on a machine.   But it can be done
> in at least small batches (maybe 1% of entire canvass, including the
> provisionals which don't have these issues).
> >
> > Kevin Greenberg
> > 215-279-9912
> > kevin.greenberg at flastergreenberg.com <javascript:;>
> >
> >> On Jun 4, 2015, at 6:06 PM, Thomas J. Cares <Tom at TomCares.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> In early voting practices, is there precedent for states making it easy
> for one to change their early vote? I mean campaigns are on full steam in
> those final days, it seems to corrupt the political process to allow
> ballots to be cast 20 days early. In my participation in democratic clubs,
> I commonly hear last minute remorse over a mailed in vote "wow, I didn't
> know that school board candidate thinks evolution should be stripped from
> biology class; I can't believe I sent my ballot in, voting for her."
> >>
> >> When I was a candidate, towards the very end, I had people tell me "I
> wish I didn't already send in my ballot, I wish I would have voted for
> you." Which could be disingenuous except one such person offered to
> volunteer a little for the campaign in the final days.
> >>
> >> See, I tend not to mail my ballot early, because I don't know how
> campaigns will develop - if someone might have a Monday night Todd Akin
> moment that costs them my respect.
> >>
> >> But, ideally, the state would allow people to still show up on Election
> Day and request their cast ballot arrange to be discarded, and cast a new
> one. Not just so voters can change their mind, but so campaigns are not so
> inhibited to keep making their case until the final day.
> >>
> >> I realize some of the logistical challenges in doing this, which seem
> minor, in my view.
> >>
> >> Has it been done?
> >>
> >> -Tom
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
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