In in Oregon and yesterday I took 6 Dem ballots to the court house. Could have mailed them but was

[OregonBlue]

going to town anyway. I am just stunned that more people don't get fed up with their state governments and insist on either all mail in or for-any-reason absentee. I was able to sit down with my voters pamphlet and read all and pro/con statements and read what candidates said about themselves. Of course I vote a straight Dem ticket but local offices and judges and ballot measures still take some research. I love vote by mail and for the paranoid, vote by mail ballots can always to turned in at the court house.

It pisses me off when I read about people having to stand in line for 4, 6, hours!!!!

[LisaL]

1. A lot of people who are standing in line could have done the same.

One can vote by mail in OH or Ca or Fl or NC.
I do not want to vote by mail. In OH, if you misspell something on the envelope, your ballot can be thrown out. So, thanks but no thanks.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Correct, as to Ohio.

There are 5 fields that have to be filled out correctly. If they are misspelled or missing the ballot is not counted. When you stand in line, you complete the absentee applidation AND the envelope. In processing the application, they check the spelling. Before they give you your ballot, they check the fields on the envelope for completeness.

Stupid system - and the rejection is not uniform across the state - but voting in person is the second safest way to vote in Ohio (the first being voting in your precinct on election day - once you feed your ballot through the machine there is no way to unvote it).

[LisaL]

4. If you vote on election day, you don't need to fill anything out.

If you vote early in person, you need to fill out a short form, but they check it so, presumably, if you fill something wrong, they will just give you another one. But if you mail an absentee ballot, if you misspell something, they can throw it out. And it was just affirmed by the court. So, voting by mail seems to be risky for that reason.

[Ms. Toad]

7. That was my point.

Election day is the safest. Nothing to fill out - and once your ballot is read through the machine, it can't be unread.

In person voting is the second, since they check the application (the short form you're talking about) in order to print the ballot - AND they check the fields on the absentee envelope at least for completeness. (The envelope fields are not applicable for people voting on touch screen machines)

Mail in is the riskiest, since no one other than the voter checks those 5 fields.

[LisaL]

11. In OH, if you vote early, you still vote on the machine.

Not a paper ballot (although it may vary by county?). So presumably pretty safe. In order to let you vote they have to check that you filled your form correctly.

[Ms. Toad]

19. It varies by county.

Medina and Stark are touch screen. Summit is scanner.

I don't recall the other counties of the top of my head.

If you're voting in a scanner county, your ballot is put inside the same envelope that is used for mail-in votes - and subject to the same 5-field decision.

ETA: It looks to be about an even split (DRE = touch screen; OS = optical scanner). http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/EOresources/maps/votingSystems.pdf

[OregonBlue]

20. Our ballots come with an outside envelope. It has your registration information.

Address, registration number, etc. and your printed full name. To the right of that is a line to write your full signature.
You just verify that the information is correct and sign it exactly as printed on the left hand column. The actual ballot is then placed inside of a privacy envelope which is sealed and has no identifying information on it.

It's very simple and almost impossible to get it wrong.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Can't abusive head of households screw with mail in ballots?

Coerce family to fill them out a certain way, fill them out for them, throw them away etc.

It also would allow more of an opening to sell or buy votes, or for employers and other people to coerce votes.

If these concerns could be addressed then everything else about it is great.

[Ms. Toad]

5. That's one of the reasons against vote aggregation

(that Dems are complaining about being banned in Arizona (I believe))

It's also why the NC Republican party may be in trouble if their representatives spoke accurately about completed applications being burned up when the headquarters was set on fire.

Most states restrict the personal submission of absentee ballots to close family members (which doesn't minimize the first - but does address the second).

[Mme. Defarge]

14. That is my main concern

about Oregon's vote-by-mail process. Coercion is entirely possible without the sanctity of the voting booth. I have also known people who have bragged about filling out ballots for adults in their care. While I filled out ballots for both myself and my husband, on those rare occasions where we had differences, I always marked his according to his preference.

That said, the advantages of Oregon's voting system clearly outweigh having to wait in long lines to vote, and in the case of some states, the absence of a paper trail.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. You have to sign your own ballot envelope.

Im not sure the problem you describe isnt a risk with other forms of voting as well.

[bhikkhu]

10. I've never heard of it happening here, and no record of any complaint I can find

Perhaps that it would be a felony is enough to discourage it.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Oregon vote by mail is GREAT.

One of many things, along with our governor and legal cannabis, we have going for us.

[central scrutinizer]

9. One more plus for early voting

You are then checked off and GOTV volunteers don't waste their time calling people who have already voted.

[Quantess]

13. I can one-up all of you! HAHA! I voted Absentee from Oregon

I voted absentee based on my Oregon address. I printed out the forms and filled them out and mailed them from my home in europe, about 3 weeks ago. One of them was the opting-out of voter privacy which allows you to email or fax your ballot by Nov 8th.

The elections official lady was very helpful. I received the overseas ballot by mail and the elections-official woman also sent me an email with the ballot attachments, adding that she would answer any questions. I actually did have a question, and she answered me the next/same day! (who knows which is the next day or the same day when you are on the other side of the globe)

Voting in Oregon is how every state should have it.

[Coyotl]

15. Three great things about our vote by mail system, turnout, take your time, and

once your ballot is in and the computer updates, the political mail halts.

I really like how I can take my time and research ballot measures, read the voter pamphlet, spend time with my voting and take it more seriously. There isn't a line behind me hoping I move along fast.

[UTUSN]

16. In my Red-jerk voter-suppression state

I purposely use my passport for "i.d." & say "because I feel I'm in a foreign country."

[DiverDave]

17. I just put mine in the

Outgoing mail pile at the yard in Portland.
easy-peasy

[True_Blue]

18. The cut off date in AZ was Thursday

for mail in ballots. I worked the phone banks for Hillary this weekend and I spoke with a few people that were still planning on mailing their ballot in. I gave them their polling location so they could take their ballot there on Tuesday.