Chas_P, on 2020-September-25, 18:54, said:
As Josef Stalin said, "It doesn't matter who casts the votes. What matters is who counts the votes." That's what worries me. I respect your right to cast your vote as you see fit. And I feel that you respect mine. But mailing out unsolicited ballots to god-knows-who really bothers me. If Biden wins fair and square I can accept that. If he wins by political chicanery...well life goes on and I hope my offspring (and yours) live through it. God (or whomever) Bless America.
Here is my starting point: Covid has created a serious problem, and it is the responsibility of those who supervise the election process to make it safe to vote and to make the results trustworthy. My responsibility is to vote in accordance with the procedure that they lay out. I add on the suggestion that we can all help by casting a vote early so as to not overwhelm the system in this time of difficulty.
Both as a practical matter and by nature, I strongly believe that if/when things go wrong we should look first for the errors we have made rather than look for the errors of others. But in this case, it is the responsibility of those in charge of elections to make this work right. So, have they done so? I hope so. If there are specific areas of weakness these should have been identified and addressed. Vague assertions of distrust don't do the job.
Now as to details.
I received my write-in ballot by email, I had applied for it by email. It was a while back and I do not recall the procedure exactly but I went through an identification process that was a good deal more detailed and extensive than when I vote in person. My name is on the ballot, there is a ballot tracking number, I will be signing the ballot, swearing under oath and penalty of perjury that I am me, it is noted that the penalty for lying is a thousand dollar fine, or two years in prison, or both. I could mail it in, and I might of the line to drop it off is too long, but they are accepting drop-offs starting next week so I imagine things will spread out enough so that dropping it off will be similar to getting groceries, as far as covid danger is concerned.
You mention both how the ballots are sent out and how they are counted. As far as how they are sent out, the process seems very good. How are they counted? Well, I don't know. But then I have never known in ay election I have voted in. I had an experience in college, definitely at odds with the care Passed Out cites. I worked various jobs, some long term, some very short term. Somehow I learned that there was a one day job delivering ballots from one place to another and I did that. The votes were cast in location X, they were counted at location Y, I was a college kid with a car who took the ballots from X to Y. I suppose they were boxed in some reasonably secure way but for 45 minutes or so I was in sole possession of them. I suppose I could have done something., but of course I was trying to make a buck, not influence a vote. (It was some local matter, not a presidential election). I am hoping/trusting we will be doing better than that in 2020.
It should not be that difficult to provide a secure counting method, and if they want to do some random checks for accuracy they do have my name and the ballot tracking number.
If fraud is discovered then this has to be addressed. But vague claims about fraud are more than a little unsettling. We are holding an election at a very difficult time and any worries about insecure voting arrangements should be addressed by specific corrections rather by vague, and not so vague, hints that a result that is not liked will be declared to be fraudulent.
In short, I don't know the details, I never do know the details, but as near as I can see this is going forward in a manner that can be trusted. And yes, trust but verify is a good slogan. If I were to worry, I might worry more about electronic voting. I think most places now have a paper trail back up to use if needed. I hope so. Most everyone wants accurate voting. I see no reason to distrust the process I am using, or at least no reason to distrust it more than in-person electronic voting.
Just as an aside, coming to mind from your mention of Stalin. In high school I did a term paper on Josef Stalin. I also did a term paper on Douglas MacArthur. This was all back in the early 1950s just before Stalin died and when MacArthur was the old soldier who never dies but just fades away. The world was different. I am not quite saying that I miss it, but it was different.