Dear Election Commissioner...

[wolfie]

My state has voting by mail, ever so much easier, if less satisfying in some way. Of course, there was one politician this year wanted it done away with - his logic (?) Privacy. Somehow, he figures your own home gives you less privacy than a public voting place....

I can see the politician's point - at a public voting place, it's easy for the supervisors to see that you're ALONE in the booth (i.e. nobody is forcing you to vote for the candidate THEY want). For mail-in ballots, there's no way to tell if someone was pressured into voting for someone other than the candidate they wanted.

I'm waiting for voting via internet. That way, I don't have to leave the house to assure my right to complain about whomever takes office.

And it will be the Machurian Candidate who wins. Net security is too weak to trust for something as important as an election.

Now if we can get the electronic voting machines back. I got writer's cramp yesterday bubbling in the 39 items!

Machines to assist in legibly marking the paper ballot, and ensure you haven't made mistakes (i.e. flag as suspicious, but allow an override, for "undervotes" such as only making 2 choices for city council when you're allowed 4, flag and refuse to process until you undo excess choices for "overvotes" such as choosing 2 people for President), fine. Machines to tabulate the paper ballots in order to get faster counts, fine. Both of those cases still have the voter-verifiable paper ballot as the definitive instrument available for recounts, and both are fallback-friendly - power goes out, hand the voter a pencil to fill out the ballot by hand, and count the ballots by hand.

Direct electronic recording? No way - without a paper ballot, there's nothing to recount, and it's too easy for an insider to steal the election. Voter chooses the touch-screen square to cast their ballot for Wyle E. Coyote for President, machine shows that on-screen, but records the vote as being for Roadrunner. Turns out Roadrunner is a major shareholder in Acme Widget Works, which built the voting machines.

[dalesys]

... Roadrunner is a major shareholder in Acme Widget Works, which built the voting machines.

Everybody's clean and it can't happen here... The Mothers Of Invention

[/FZ]

[FenigDurak]

At least you were allowed to vote.

I got my TN license the day after the voter registration deadline. I was advised to call my counties Election Commission office to guidance. Woman on the phone said I could fill out a provisional ballot on the day of and be fine.

Day of comes, I go to polling place and the official there refused me twice. So to the Election Commission Office I go. There another woman explains to me why I'm not being given a ballot. I say that's all well and good, but had the person I'd spoken with a month earlier been honest with me, I'd have applied for an absentee ballot for CO and still voted.

Lucky for me, a news reporter and cameraman were there, so I was interviewed and allowed to express my displeasure (and disenfranchisement) without being shushed and interrupted.

[Seshat]

New Mexico has come up with and implemented a lovely idea this year: Voting Convenience Centers. You can go to any polling place in your city and vote. Whichever polling place your closest to, you can vote there.

Australia's system:

Go to any open polling place, In a Federal election, anywhere in the country. State election, anywhere in the state. There's a queue for 'absentee ballots' - ie, people voting outside their own electorate. Your vote gets put in an envelope which states which electorate it's for, and goes into an 'absentee ballot' box for separate sorting.
OR
At any point between the finalisation of the candidates and close of polls on election day, you can go to an Australian Electoral Commission office and vote. (We usually do that, so we can be sure to vote on a day my brain is actually functional.)
OR
If you're overseas working for the government (eg, an embassy, a military base) a polling place will be set up for you.
OR
For any reason at all (usually disability, living somewhere remote, or being overseas), you can ask for a postal vote.

[Chromatix]

It is wonderfully simple here in Finland. We just happened to have municipal elections one week before the US one.

One month in advance, every registered voter gets an information letter through the post. If you're in the population register, which is used for taxation and is therefore quite complete and up-to-date, then you're registered to vote - there is no separate form to deal with and be obstructed by. The letter explains where and when to go to vote - in my case, a nearby primary school. (Schools are popular for polling stations because they're not otherwise used at the weekend.) It also explains how to place an advance/postal vote.

The actual voting is very old-school. You show up, queue to show your photo ID (in my case my passport, but most Finns have a national ID card), from which your name is looked up in and crossed off a list - so you are at the right place, are casting your own vote, and are not double-voting. You are then handed a ballot, which is a folded piece of card - blank on the outside and with a large circle on the inside.

Inside the booth, there is a big list of standing candidates and their numbers. All the advertisements that candidates have put up during their campaign have also listed their candidate numbers, likewise the "candidate choice helper" questionnaires run by some of the larger news media. You simply write the number clearly inside the circle, fold the card again and head for the box. The official beside the box stamps the outside of the card with an official seal, then opens the slot of the box for you to put it in.

The whole thing probably took only 5 minutes including queueing. It took longer to walk there.

The votes are subsequently counted on the d'Hondt system, a type of proportional representation. It works pretty well, with Helsinki having five main parties sharing nearly equal numbers of seats, and several smaller parties also gaining representation. At the parliamentary level there are also several main parties, with the overall government usually being formed by a coalition of two or even three at a time. Presidential elections are organised as a runoff, so the final winner always has over 50% of the popular vote.

I did get asked where the polling place was this year, by a confused-looking old lady who obviously had never sent children to this particular school. Admittedly, the school building is hidden in a hollow behind the play area as seen from the main road. As a dedicated primary school, it doesn't have an "upstairs" at all. Since I had just left it, I simply pointed down the path I had just come up. No problem.