# Voting 2026 - Good, Bad, and Ugly **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 9, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700 "2026-10-09T16:24:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/81 "2026-10-21T20:29:18Z")
What state do you vote in? In California, the Los Angeles county election board helpfully sends me a text when: they mail a ballot, when they receive it, and when it’s been verified. I think also when it’s been tabulated. Much easier than standing in line on election day. ---
**Author:** ![RAWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@RAWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RAWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/82 "2026-10-21T20:36:02Z")
Minnesota. I don’t get a notification that they’ve received my ballot, but I can check the status online. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/83 "2026-10-21T22:09:28Z")
Some states–red ones, of course–are already being more “detail-oriented” than others, as far as ballot-acceptance is concerned. > [@](#): > > …Some Democratic strongholds are seeing rejection rates as high as 7-8%, the data show. > > The findings offer an unusually stark example of how Republican-backed voting restrictions, especially those targeting mail ballots, can directly cause large numbers of eligible voters to be disenfranchised. > **[Exclusive: Thousands of North Carolina ballots set to be rejected after GOP...](https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/exclusive-thousands-of-mail-ballots-set-to-be-rejected-after-gop-imposed-strict-new-rules-data-shows/)** > > If 3% of mail ballots statewide end up being rejected, it would lead to an estimated 3,942 ballots being thrown out, Democracy Docket calculated. Those voters would be disenfranchised unless they come back to cure them — something few voters end up... One suspects that the ‘Democratic strongholds’ mentioned above may experience more pernickity ‘acceptance’ rules than will Republican areas. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/84 "2026-10-21T22:53:22Z")
Moderating: > [@RAWDuke](#): > > (Mods, please feel free to move this to Mundane Pointless stuff if you think it doesn’t warrant a political discussion) Thanks for asking, but this is as political as it gets. You lodged your OP in the right place. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/85 "2026-10-21T22:55:25Z")
Great cites. You might want to put it over here too: > [@Midterm Cheating Watch](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-cheating-watch/1033989): > > This thread can start with discussion of whether my link captures what is likely, and can continue when we see how close any GOP election cheating actually is to the picture below: [Critical Conditions Podcast, Oct. 19, 2026](https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-uses-of-chaos?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=16235&post_id=221191869&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=play_card_play_button&r=2juke&triedRedirect=true) P.S. This is from a never-Trump center-right podcast. I believe everything quoted above was said by Claire Berlinkski, who is talking with Dan Perry. Or here: > [@Voting 2026 - Good, Bad, and Ugly](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700): > > This is for your tales of voting, lines, balloting irregularities, voter disenfranchisement shenanigans, and anything else similar. Good or bad. Whether your personal experience or something from the media. My story? Got my vote-by mail ballot around Sept 20, mailed it Oct 1, and first checked on its progress today. The county election board says they have it back and it’s been counted. Their website doesn’t give a timeline of each step. Our early voting kicks off Oct 19. So far so normal. … Both of those threads are tracking RW ratfucking with the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/86 "2026-10-21T22:56:38Z")
We’re talking about merging this thread with one of those, so no worries. We can also let this one stand alone. Up to the OP in this case. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/87 "2026-10-21T23:06:54Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > In California, the Los Angeles county election board helpfully sends me a text when: they mail a ballot, when they receive it, and when it’s been verified. I think also when it’s been tabulated. All of the California counties do this. I dropped mine in a ballot box this year for the first time. I’ve voted by mail for around 30 years ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/88 "2026-10-22T02:27:56Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Queue the Missouri Republicans’ collective answer: “Gasp! We can’t have that! We’re going to keep abortion illegal by hook or by crook!” So they devised a crook: earlier this year, they had us vote on two issues. The MAGAt majority in the Arizona legislature kept passing MAGAty bills that the Democratic governor kept vetoing, over 130 of them. It’s a big part of the hit ads against her. So now we have eight measures on the ballot all put there by the legislature. None of them touch abortion but instead we have voter suppression, anti-DEI, counting as little as two people a drug cartel and terrorist organization, and school spending restrictions. The ACLU recommends a No vote on all of them. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/89 "2026-10-22T03:08:20Z")
> [@RAWDuke](#): > > I sealed the ballot in the “signature” envelope, then realized there was a plain “ballot” envelope it was supposed to go in first. Rather than break the seal, I just sent it, figuring it wouldn’t matter. Non-snarky, serious question here: Why would you think it wouldn’t matter? Voting is statutory (governed by formal written laws). _Everything_ matters. Not following directions is just asking for your ballot to be thrown out. Fortunately they gave you an opportunity to correct it (cure the defect, as they say). You’re lucky. In about a third of the states, there is no such process, and they would have just thrown your ballot out and not counted it. **[Voting explainer: In many states, there’s a process to fix an error with your ballot](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125179062/voting-explainer-in-many-states-theres-a-process-to-fix-an-error-with-your-ballo)** > [@NPR](#): > > During big U.S. elections, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots are typically thrown out and left uncounted. In 2020, for instance, [more than 560,000](https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/document_library/files/2020_EAVS_Report_Final_508c.pdf) ballots were rejected (that’s nearly 1% of the total). > > Experts say ballot rejections are largely the result of relatively minor voter errors, often associated with security measures that are designed to verify a voter’s identity. **[Cure period for absentee and mail-in ballots](https://ballotpedia.org/Cure_period_for_absentee_and_mail-in_ballots)** ---
**Author:** ![RAWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@RAWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RAWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/90 "2026-10-22T12:07:41Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Not following directions is just asking for your ballot to be thrown out. Fortunately they gave you an opportunity to correct it (cure the defect, as they say). You’re lucky. In about a third of the states, there is no such process, and they would have just thrown your ballot out and not counted it. Yeah, that was kinda dumb (with a “b”). ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/91 "2026-10-26T20:43:48Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > \* MN has “fill in the bubble” type ballots which are fed into a scanner type machine. Electronic counting with paper backup. Non-USian here - we voted in our municipal election today and this is the same system we use. It’s fast, just a couple of seconds to process, it immediately rejects the ballot if there is an error which prevents processing so you can fix it, and provides fast tabulation of the vote counts as well as paper backup in case of recounts. It seems like a method that should be widely adopted. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/92 "2026-10-26T23:03:00Z")
You don’t understand. Only one of the two parties wants a voting system that is fast and accurate. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/93 "2026-10-27T00:18:34Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > It seems like a method that should be widely adopted New York State uses it. The one thing it doesn’t do is let you check whether what you filled in was what the machine recorded; though if there is a paper recount it would catch any such shenanigans. New York selects a small percentage of random machines each election for such a recount, and the paper’s kept for two years from all of them in case they find reason to check others. I’m not actually expecting any problems along those lines in NY; or along any lines in this rural, and rather red, district. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/94 "2026-10-27T00:51:44Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > New York State uses it. So does [Connecticut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_scan_voting_system#/media/File:OpticalScanBallot_MilfordCT2009.jpg) (i.e. a fill-in-the-bubble card that is optically scanned). Incredibly, when I first moved to the state and voted here in the early 2000s, they were still the old [mechanical lever-type voting machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_machine#Levers) in my town. (According to the link, some areas of New York State used these as late as 2009.) And when I voted in Texas in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they used a [punched card system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_machine#Punched_card_voting). When I voted absentee, I wasn’t provided with the associated device, just a punchcard with pre-scored holes identified with letters and numbers along with a key (i.e. Candidate [Name] corresponds to block A-2). I would then punch out the [chads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_(paper)) with the end of a paperclip on my carpet. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/95 "2026-10-27T01:01:30Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Incredibly, when I first moved to the state and voted here in the early 2000s, they were still the old [mechanical lever-type voting machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_machine#Levers) in my town. (According to the link, some areas of New York State used these as late as 2009.) Ayup. I was kind of sad to see them go. NY was one of the last states to switch — because the people who needed to decide which new machines would be acceptable started out entirely clueless, and if they’d gone with their first ideas would have given us something with no paper ballot. However, they turned out to be willing to listen to the outcry that went up; and eventually approved standards which most of the machines on the market at the time couldn’t meet, which caused another round of delay. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/96 "2026-10-27T03:04:29Z")
As of today, October 26th, it’s at 31 million plus. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/97 "2026-10-27T09:34:37Z")
It’s Election Day in Israel, and I’m standing in line to vote at the Givatayim Memorial Center. I’ve never waited this long to get into a polling place. The news is saying that voter turnout by 10 AM is the highest since 1981. Besides the wait, everything seems to be going smoothly. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/98 "2026-10-27T09:54:07Z")
So in Israel when voting in this Knesset, when voters receive an envelope with the ballot letters at the polling station (where each letter represents the party for which they wish to vote), do they fill in choices on the ballot letter? I’ve wondered if it’s different from where I live in that way. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/99 "2026-10-27T10:15:59Z")
No writing involved. There’s a full array of notes behind the curtain; you take one, put it in the envelope, seal the envelope, put it in the ballot box. That’s it. Very old school. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700/100 "2026-10-27T11:01:13Z")
Now they’re saying that the turnout by 12:00 is the highest since 1973 - 31.5%. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-2026-good-bad-and-ugly/1033700.md?page=4)