Voting 2026 - Good, Bad, and Ugly

Politics & Elections
61

You’re not disagreeing with me. I didn’t say exactly what the preprocessing was in my county. But it actually includes scanning the ballot into the computer but not actually counting the votes. So the procedures are pretty much the same in both states.

My contribution, along with a couple dozen or more other temp workers, was to remove them from the envelopes and flatten them for scanning. Also give them a visual scan for certain disqualifying things, which I never found. I did however, once have a ballot which had been torn into about 20 small squares, neatly stacked and placed into the security envelope. This was in the 2016 election and the voter was probably unsatisfied with their choice for President.

62

This seems to be both non-partisan and relevant:

Whose Mail-In Ballots Are Not Showing Up?

My guess is that the richer Philadelphians whose ballots are undeliverable live in condos and apartments – and are disproportionately Democrats.

63

Early voting started Oct 6 in Ohio. I took my local Democratic party flyer with all of the backed judges marked, and went to the county BOE to vote at lunch time. There were probably about 100 voters there, and 20 workers manning the entrance, check-in and final scan.

There was no waiting in line. But the guy I gave my ID to had a hard time getting it to scan. We both kind of looked at each other tensely but I assured him I was registered and had checked multiple times. He even had to get someone over to help him and it worked. “User error” he said. I said no problem, thanks for helping. No reason to fuss.

My BOE moved to a new building last year, and it worked out well for this early-in-person-voting push. They have about 3x as much room now and a Wal-Mart-sized parking lot so there was plenty of room for everyone, and a few folks from the Sheriff’s department as well.

Speaking of moving the BOE - I had switched to using MapQuest as my GPS this summer, after all the bullshit with “Lake America” (they were the only system that didn’t switch to using Lake America) and looked up the BOE address. They had it at the old location! I reported it to MapQuest and let people know on Facebook and Reddit. It’s still not fixed, 2 days on. But hopefully the user base is small enough that it won’t be an issue.

64

Got my ballot in the mail today and I’ll be filling it out and dropping it off most likely this weekend.

65

My wife and I got emails last evening saying that our ballots, deposited in the cluster box outgoing mail slot two days before, had been received by the county election office.

66

Before the pandemic, almost all of the voting in California was in-person. We had about 20,000 precincts. On election day, there would be two or three people sitting at a folding table at each one. They would verify that you were eligible and hand you your ballot to mark up. The verification step was done by about 50,000 people during the 13 hour period when the polls were open. It seems likely that there are far fewer people handling that task now that we vote by mail. That is why it takes longer now.

67

I got my mail-in ballot today, and hand-delivered it to the courthouse. It sounds like they have enough people to count ballots, but I’m willing to be wait-listed if they have people who cancel or no-show.

68

So, just wanted to update my timeline for my Colorado Ballot to show how smooth the process can be for a state-wide ballot-by-mail election, without the administration injecting itself.

Monday October 5th 8:12 AM - get a text advising El Paso County Elections has sent my 2026 Election mail ballot to me.
Wednesday October 7th - received ballot, though I didn’t complete it since I was leaving on vacation next morning.

October 12th, completed ballot in about 90 minutes after using three or four different online resources (including the Indivisible link I shared above) to evaluate the candidates, state, and local issues. Waited until my hard working wife had a chance to finish hers (Thursday Night) so I could drop off both at a secure ballot bot.

Friday, October 16th, ~11am, dropped off both completed ballots at the secure, drive through drop off two miles from me (there was one within a long walking distance as well!).

Friday, October 16th 3:23PM (IE only four hours later) I have a text, advising “Your mail ballot has been accepted & will be counted. Counting can begin on 10/19 per CO law.” Website link available for more information.

So I had clear instructions as to when it was sent, it arrived timely, and when dropped off I had information that it was accepted within hours and if there had been an issue, I’d have had plenty of time to fix it. Or, for that matter, still been able to go to a local voting location when they open (listed on the original mailer) to request an in-person ballot and handle it that way if needed.

Note also Colorado Law on when they can begin counting to ease the election day dump!

But somehow, this is “not secure” or “subject to abuse”. Poppycock I say!

69

In CA I voted by mail today. The hard part was the propositions.

70

So far, 70 posts in, it seems most of the news is good, not bad nor ugly. One hopes that continues. One is not entirely optimistic.

But there is this fresh Pit thread to provide equal time for the Ugly POV: