There's nothing inherently shady or dishonest about absentee voting. In 38 of Washington state's 39 counties, it's the only way to vote -- polling places are in the rearview mirror -- and plenty of other jurisdictions around the country allow people to cast votes in absentia with no fuss. What's key, though, is that they require the absentee ballot to go out and come back via U.S. Mail. That's not how absentee voting works in Pocomoke and Snow Hill. Recent events show it ought to.
Our news pages have covered the unhappy election sagas in those towns this spring. In both places, it's perfectly above board for candidates and their supporters to be part of the 'chain of custody' of absentee ballots. Candidates can take applications for absentee ballots to city hall on a voter's behalf; they can also carry a completed, sealed absentee ballot from a voter to the ballot-counting spot. Each town has some safeguards built in to protect the secrecy of a ballot. But, still, the system breeds ill will: some candidates campaign almost exclusively by recruiting absentee voters in in-person visits, and they hand packets of completed ballots -- ballots they can safely assume contain votes for them -- to elections officials. Other candidates wonder, with reason, whether ballots their opponents think won't help them are sitting in a drawer somewhere. When in-person vote tallies and absentee vote counts diverge wildly, passions flare.
It's remarkable, when you think about it, for a town to permit candidates in its elections to handle ballots at all. The opportunity for suspicion of fraud is too high. We have a delivery system for documents that makes any interference with those documents a federal crime -- the postal system. It's time for Snow Hill and Pocomoke City to take advantage of it, as the county's other municipalities do, and ensure that a voter and his mail carrier are the only people who lay a hand on absentee ballots. We don't mean to impugn the candidates who won recent municipal elections -- they played by the rules as they understood them. But the rules do need changing.
www.delmarvanow.com
9 comments:
Excellent article. In Pocomoke where we have a supposedly professional, certified city manager, better procedures should have been in place. The fact that we don't speaks volumes about the lack of competence and lack of concern for what is best for Pocomoke and its citizens.
""In both places, it's perfectly above board for candidates and their supporters to be part of the 'chain of custody' of absentee ballots. Candidates can take applications for absentee ballots to city hall on a voter's behalf; they can also carry a completed, sealed absentee ballot from a voter to the ballot-counting spot.""
This is not correct. If you're going to report it, report it right. ONLY ballots picked up at the P.O. by the election board are counted in Pocomoke. They are then sealed and opened and counted at the polling place on Election Day after the polls closed. Admittedly there is room for fraud to occur between the voters address and the P.O., but this would be a crime that we have to trust the authorities to control, since the election board can't watch every doorstep, every minute of the election cycle.
Anonymous said...
""In both places, it's perfectly above board for candidates and their supporters to be part of the 'chain of custody' of absentee ballots. Candidates can take applications for absentee ballots to city hall on a voter's behalf; they can also carry a completed, sealed absentee ballot from a voter to the ballot-counting spot.""
This is not correct. If you're going to report it, report it right. ONLY ballots picked up at the P.O. by the election board are counted in Pocomoke. They are then sealed and opened and counted at the polling place on Election Day after the polls closed. Admittedly there is room for fraud to occur between the voters address and the P.O., but this would be a crime that we have to trust the authorities to control, since the election board can't watch every doorstep, every minute of the election cycle.
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Read the Md. laws concerning absentee ballots.
A candidate can handle the absentee application but cannot toutch the ballot, it is reported correct per the http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/absentee.html
Assistance
A voter who requires assistance in casting an absentee ballot by reason of disability, inability to write, or inability to read the ballot may be assisted by any individual other than:
A candidate who on the voter's ballot;
The voter's employer or an agent of the employer; or
An officer or agent of the voter's union.
The Public Eye said"
"Read the Md. laws concerning absentee ballots.
A candidate can handle the absentee application but cannot toutch the ballot, it is reported correct per the http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/absentee.html"
The above wasn't the augument.
The part of the reply that was in quotes was taken from your original post: "In both places, it's perfectly above board for candidates and their supporters to be part of the 'chain of custody' of absentee ballots. Candidates can take applications for absentee ballots to city hall on a voter's behalf; they can also carry a completed, sealed absentee ballot from a voter to the ballot-counting spot." That was the inaccurate part. Don't you read your own posts?
I'M telling you:
This is not correct. If you're going to report it, report it right. ONLY ballots picked up at the P.O. by the election board are counted in Pocomoke. They are then sealed and opened and counted at the polling place on Election Day after the polls closed. Admittedly there is room for fraud to occur between the voters address and the P.O., but this would be a crime that we have to trust the authorities to control, since the election board can't watch every doorstep, every minute of the election cycle.
2:32, you're right, my apologies.
I missed that some how. My post actually backs-up what you are saying. As you can see that article is from delmarvanow, it looks like they need to read/research the laws huh?
I will for sure make sure I proof read these C/P's closely.
I will say that it seams that Pocomoke and Snowhill seam to think it's "above board" for a candidate to handle the absentee ballots.
The law clearly says that a candidate cannot touch the "ballot", they can however handle the absentee application.
Thanks for pointing that out.
The Public Eye said:
"I will say that it seams that Pocomoke and Snowhill seam to think it's "above board" for a candidate to handle the absentee ballots"
It may "seem" that way, but I don't think that is the case. My sources tell me that the election board in Pocomoke does not "condone" the handling of the absentee ballot by the candidate or his campaign.
3:32 said
It may "seem" that way, but I don't think that is the case. My sources tell me that the election board in Pocomoke does not "condone" the handling of the absentee ballot by the candidate or his campaign.
That I have know idea about, but, I'd bet they with the outrageous number of absentee ballots that was presented against Mrs. Burke.
There's no way there would be that many absentee ballots otherwise.
That may be the case. There's an investigation currently being conducted into that.
Anonymous said...
That may be the case. There's an investigation currently being conducted into that.
And that investagation sure is hush-hush, but I dont get out much to get the scoop.
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