[EL] Change early vote?

Sat Jun 6 17:30:53 PDT 2015

For years I have advocated changing the Oregon system so that "the last 
vote counts" for each voter.

Today, a voter can legitimately request a second ballot, only if the 
first ballot has been lost, destroyed, or mutilated in a way that will 
prevent it from being counted by the scanners.  This locks early voters 
into their early choices, which can be made up to 17 days before 
election day.  If a voter has already sent in her ballot and then claims 
it was lost or destroyed and casts a second ballot, it is the first 
ballot that counts.

My proposal has been that anyone can request a second ballot, for any 
reason, and casting it would override that person's earlier vote.  This 
is practical because, as Sal noted, each voter has a unique bar-coded 
identifier.  When the voter goes to the county election office, shows 
valid ID, and requests a second ballot, it gets the same bar code as the 
first one.

This "last vote counts" system would be a safeguard against a type of 
voter fraud that is possible with vote-by-mail.  Say an unscrupulous 
employer says to her workers, "All of you sign your voter return 
envelopes and give me your ballots.  If you tell anyone about this, you 
are fired."  The employer could then fill out the ballots, insert them 
into the pre-signed return envelopes, and mail them in.  Say then a 
concerned worker goes to the county elections office and asks for a 
second ballot.  He can get one, only if he says the first ballot was 
lost.  Say he does so and votes the second ballot.  Then, when the 
system sees that 2 ballots were cast by the same person, it cancels the 
second one, thus leaving the employer's voting fraud scheme intact.

If the second ballot were the one that counted, the worker could thwart 
the employer's fraud by going to the county elections office, showing 
valid ID, getting a second ballot and casting it. This would also allow 
voters to change their votes, based upon events during the last 17 days 
before the election.

You may ask why we should not rely on the worker to report the fraud.  
That would require substantial courage on the part of a worker who needs 
the job.  Also, there would be no documentary evidence of the fraud, 
unless all of the marks (usually the filling in of ovals) on the ballots 
looked the same and were made with the same type of pen.  But the 
employer could avoid that sort of evidence by using different pens and 
marking styles.

As for Tom's question about whether states make it easy to change an 
early vote, Oregon does not.  In fact, it prohibits changing an early 
vote except when the original ballot is lost, destroyed, or mutilated 
and in fact has not already been mailed in.  If it has already been 
mailed in and is machine-readable, it counts and cannot be changed.  
There are no walk-in polls in Oregon, so early votes cannot be changed 
"at the polls."

But I think Oregon should change its rules so that anyone can request 
and vote a second ballot, with only the second ballot counting.  The 
existing technology allows that.  And it should not be necessary for the 
voter to make a trip to the county elections office.  Since the first 
ballot was simply mailed to the voter's registered address, the second 
ballot could be mailed there also. This would also tend to discourage 
the type of hypothetical voter fraud I described above.  Each employer 
would know that, even if she collects, fills out, and votes the ballots 
of her workers, each of them can easily (and in secret) request and cast 
a second ballot that would override the first one.

Dan Meek

	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	855-280-0488 fax

On 6/5/2015 11:03 PM, Sal Peralta wrote:
> In Oregon's VBM system there is no way to associate a particular ballot with a voter.  The voter places the ballot into a secrecy envelope and signs the envelope which has a barcode uniquely associated with the voter.  When the ballot is received, the envelope is processed, the signature is verified and the ballot is flagged "received".  Then the ballot is removed from the envelope and placed with the other ballots for processing.   This is intended to protect voter privacy.
>
> I'm not sure I agree that this creates a problem of campaigns not working hard through Election Day.  To the contrary, campaigns get daily updates of which votes have been cast so it allows them to more efficiently target their outreach efforts on voters who have not yet returned their ballots.  Additionally the state provides voters with a web interface to check to see whether their ballots have been received and their status which makes it easier to cure potential problems such as the ballot getting lost in the mail or a failure to match the signature.
>
> More Oregonians seem to be holding their ballots until nearer to the date of the election in recent years, possibly for reasons like those you've stated.
>
> This may be provincial, but I think it's a pretty innovative model.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Sal Peralta
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Jun 4, 2015, at 3:06 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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