Danger for Early Voters?

[PhantomWolf]

Here's a new one that I heard on the radio while going to get dinner.

A caller was wanting to know if votes casted before the election still countered if the voter died between casting the ballot and the counting. He believed that it was entirely possible that if they didn't, politicians would form death squads to kill early voters who had voted against them as a way of preventing their votes from being counted.


I can only point at my sig and mumble, what sort of confusion of ideas....

 

[Ysidro]

No. Really.

Nuff said.

 

[Horatius]

Here's a new one that I heard on the radio while going to get dinner.

A caller was wanting to know if votes casted before the election still countered if the voter died between casting the ballot and the counting. He believed that it was entirely possible that if they didn't, politicians would form death squads to kill early voters who had voted against them as a way of preventing their votes from being counted.


I can only point at my sig and mumble, what sort of confusion of ideas....

I guess he's never heard of a "secret ballot".

But that's twice now you've given me an idea for a comic!

 

[fromdownunder]

I guess he's never heard of a "secret ballot".

What makes you think you can keep anything at all secret from "THEM"?

Norm

 

[dudalb]

The only rational response to this Theory:

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Crack Election Fixing Strong-Arm Deathecution New World Illuminati Psychic Force GO!!!!

 

[eromitlab]

The only rational response to this Theory:[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_1884048ca062020e8b.jpg[/qimg]

That is, in fact, where my hand ended up by the time I finished reading the punchline.

You should apply for the million.

 

[fezzic]

I guess he's never heard of a "secret ballot".

What do you mean secret ballot?!!

I was standing there while the poll worker wrote down the serial number on the tab of my ballot on the voter application which had my name, address, and phone number. Then she tore off the tab and put the ballot and tab into a cover folder for me to... oh.

 

[PhantomWolf]

I guess he's never heard of a "secret ballot".

I guessing that he thinks that these politicians who can summon the death squads to work for them, can also sneek in and look through all the votes and figure out who voted for them and who voted against them.

But that's twice now you've given me an idea for a comic!

Does that mean I can start charging a commission? I need to subsidise by NWO paycheck.

 

[gnome]

You know, if the politician's death squads are that good, one thinks the "voting" bit is kind of moot.

If I have death squads that can operate with impunity, I'm not using them to rig an election. I'm using them to TAKE OVER.

 

[Horatius]

But that's twice now you've given me an idea for a comic!

Does that mean I can start charging a commission? I need to subsidise by NWO paycheck.

What part of "given" did you not understand?

 

[PhantomWolf]

You know, if the politician's death squads are that good, one thinks the "voting" bit is kind of moot.

If I have death squads that can operate with impunity, I'm not using them to rig an election. I'm using them to TAKE OVER.

Well to be fair on the poor guy that was on the show, I have no idea if votes can be traced back to the voter or not, so that part might be valid, not that I for a second think that anyone would be going around bumping off voters, just that it might be possible for someone to determine which votes against them were cast by which people. The reason I say this is that I just filled out my own Ballot papers (NZ election is on Nov 8th) and they could be traced back to me due to the number on the paper. This is a security feature to make sure I don't vote twice. I'd assume that the US has something similar?

 

[Baylor]

Traditional voter fraud is much easier and less messy.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Traditional voter fraud is much easier and less messy.

Oh I don't doubt it, and again I want to make it quite clear that I think the idea is floating out in space somewhere so far from reality that 9/11 is more likely. I'm just curious as to if it really could be done, assuming someone was both insane enough and powerful enough to try and do it, or if it's impossible to link votes to voters once they have been cast.

 

[eromitlab]

Every US state handles their voting differently, but the premise is basically the same; in my state, it involves going to a desk staffed with two poll workers; one checks ID against a list of registered voters in that precinct, and a second distributes paper ballots after you sign and print your name. Beyond that, there's nothing to tie a particular voter to the votes they cast; the voter isn't identified anywhere on the ballot and it goes into an optical scanner with the rest.

The differences one could expect to encounter that would attach their identity to their vote come with absentee and provisional ballots. (My state doesn't do the early voting that a lot of states do, so I can't attest to how that works.) Provisional ballots obviously have to have some form of ID attached so the voter can be verified and the ballot can be counted or tossed on that basis. Absentee is a bit different. I absentee voted in a municipal election two months ago; that entailed going to City Hall, having ID checked, photocopied and verified against the list of registered voters for the whole city in order to receive the absentee ballot, then having to enclose the copy of my ID in the envelope with the absentee ballot, which was itself in a separate sealed envelope with signatures from two witnesses on an affidavit. So in the absentee instance, a person's identity is definitely attached to their ballot for some length of time (in case any organized death squads want to come get them before their vote is actually counted) but the ballot would have to be opened to see who they voted for and would make it pretty obvious unless the election officials are in on the plot; which, really, is small potatoes if someone's going to organize death squads to eliminate people who vote against them.

 

[Travis]

If I come out of the polling station and see a guy getting shot in the head for saying he voted for Obama I'm sure has heck going to pretend I'm the biggest McCain fan there ever was......of course with my luck the Death Squad is aligned with whomever the Libertarian Party has thrown on the ballot to be embarrassed.

 

[eromitlab]

Hopefully I'll run into the Nader-affiliated death squads. They won't actually kill you right away, they'll just have you drive their '61 Corvair across town and take their chances.