alarming news

[ufu1395]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

[Velvet]

Hmmm?

[Dana1963]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.
You can fill out your absentee ballot and drop it off at register of voters drop box.
There are no mail persons at the Villages mailbox they are contractors that pick up your mail in Lady Lake then distribute it to us, the lowest hanging fruit on the Postal Chain Gang.

[Madelaine Amee]

This website has all the information you need for mail in voting. Sumter County Supervisor of Elections > Home (https://www.sumterelections.org/)

You can hand deliver your vote to the Govt. Offices in Powell Road, Wildwood, just off 466a where your vote will be handed to the Officer in charge of receiving ballots. Also, I am informed that the various Rec Centers will have boxes for ballots where you can deposit your vote. Personally, I prefer to get mine into the Government Office in Powell Road.

Check out the clickable link which has all the information anyone could need to know about voting.

May I suggest you don't listen to any more gossip, it will drive you to drink.

[Madelaine Amee]

//////

[Stu from NYC]

Still plan to vote in person, did it at primary and felt very safe

[Going My Way]

There are no mail persons at the Villages mailbox they are contractors that pick up your mail in Lady Lake then distribute it to us, the lowest hanging fruit on the Postal Chain Gang.

My Mail person drives a US Post Office van, wears a US Post Office uniform with USPS ID and DISTRIBUTES mail at our Villages mail boxes....

[44Apple]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.


Don't believe ya.

[Stu from NYC]

BTW mail is coming to us at has always come.

[Halibut]

My Mail person drives a US Post Office van, wears a US Post Office uniform with USPS ID and DISTRIBUTES mail at our Villages mail boxes....

Mine, too.

The greatest amount of misinformation here is spread by those who blithely assume that whatever is true for their house, their street, their village, and their county must be true for everyone.

[trueorange]

Just go vote early. No lines, friendly poll workers, your vote is secure.

[Topspinmo]

IMO it will take till Xmas to count all the mail in votes. This will be the most SAFU election of all time.:boom:

[Scott O]

Not ours, she drives a new Camero and wears flip flops and shorts, so yeah I’m guessing she’s a contract employee..

[Viperguy]

IMO it will take till Xmas to count all the mail in votes. This will be the most SAFU election of all time.:boom:

You got that right! It won't matter who wins. The courts will be involved from day one

[Bethwill]

They are all contracted employees at the mail centers, and if you don't believe that your vote could be lost in the mail, , then God bless you! The mail system has historically been terrible!

[Nannyof3]

That’s a lot of BS

[mjpuleo]

folks--please let's not start another catastrophe--we gave enough going on already!

[banjobob]

Vote in person , no one is so busy they need a mail in vote period . Voter fraud is real , and improperly filled out ballots are destroyed.

[graciegirl]

Hmmm?

I strongly agree with Velvet.

[graciegirl]

That’s a lot of BS

What Nanny said.

[Eg_cruz]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.
Not sure what the big hub bub about going to the polls this year. If you can stand in line at Sams and Walmart to buy toilet paper you can stand in line to vote. Here in FL we have early voting so go the the polls early and vote. I have not and never will send in a vote too many variables were my vote won’t count.
Vote at the Polls........simple way to know your vote matters

[Windguy]

Wow. If the USPS cannot handle us mailing a single letter to vote, what is going to happen during the holidays when many people send out handfuls or even dozens of greeting cards?

Should we send our cards now so they can get there in time?

[Eg_cruz]

BTW mail is coming to us at has always come.
We mail a lot at my office and trust me when I say the mail has gotten slower and slower. Took four days for my client to get something I mailed her here in The Villages. Norm use to be 1, 2 at tops. When you mailed out of state over 8 days ......norm use to be 4. So yes the mail has slowed down for sure.

[Windguy]

Vote in person , no one is so busy they need a mail in vote period . Voter fraud is real , and improperly filled out ballots are destroyed.

Well, I beg to differ. People who are working one or more minimum-wage jobs don’t have the privilege of taking off from work and couldn’t afford the lost wages even if they could.

And, significant voter fraud is real only on propaganda outlets.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

The first post is just a copy/paste from an internet meme. It is fabricated.

Meanwhile, back in reality, there are states still encouraging semi-isolation. There are still states that have towns still with mask mandates and strict enforcement of curfews and social distancing.

The US Postal Service serves ALL of those states. And in some of those states, there's a legitimate concern about gathering at the polls to vote. In November, in the north, it will be COLD. If you're social distancing - 6 feet apart, then no polling place will be able to accommodate every one who shows up to vote. Many will have to stand outside, some of them for hours.

And so - mail-in ballots are a thing. An important thing. A significantly important thing. What I see is people who live "in the bubble" once again not noticing that the rest of the world exists, and is not like the bubble. The bubble is not real. It's a facade. Even immediately outside the bubble, there are people getting sick and dying at higher rates than in some states that have stricter guidelines. Marion and Lake Counties in particular. Those residents of those counties - if they have any brains in their heads, will want to know what other way they can vote, besides gathering in a crowded polling place without social distancing, or being stuck outside with social distancing waiting to get in to vote. And it doesn't even get all that cold down here.

The rest of the world is experiencing a world of hurt, coming at it from every subject-matter that can affect the world. Some people in the bubble are paying close attention to it. Some are intentionally ignoring it. And some are sincerely oblivious because it doesn't occur to them that they probably should care.

[billyb1950]

Still plan to vote in person, did it at primary and felt very safe

I agree. When I voted early in the primary @ Lauren Manor, I was pleasantly surprised by the extreme preventive measures taken and the many cautions in place. I told my wife I thought it was more like a hospital operating room in there. Don't be afraid to vote in person. :)

[ufu1395]

To Orange Blossom Baby: my first post was not from internet or fabricated, just saying.

[villageuser]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

Better yet, get a mail-in ballot, fill it out and drop it off at the drop-off point in Tavares, or wherever is more convenient for you to do so.

[davem4616]

we'll be out of town on election day...so we're planning to vote early in person

if we can go to Publix and W-D we can certainly vote in person....did it for the primaries

[Girlcopper]

Oh and BTW don’t wear a mask, claim it’s your constitutional right, help “spread” the coronavirus and kill a few more good friends, just because you have Phil the Postman (disgruntled union postal worker who hates his job) tell you your vote won’t get delivered. Oh, he’s probably part of the “deep state” too! WTF?
Love your thoughts and youre exactly right. What kind of postal worker will tell anyone their vote wont be delivered??? If you personally are that worried about your vote, then go vote. Ive been voting by mail for years and dont intend to stop

[camaguey48]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.
Vote in person and make your vote count. The future of our country depends on it because.....it does.

[MandoMan]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

If you mail your ballot a week before Election Day, and it is going local, you are definitely fine. If you are mailing it out of state, two weeks is definitely fine.

A study was published yesterday that showed that since DeJoy became postmaster general (in July and August) the percentage of local mail not delivered in two days went from around 25% to almost 50%. The study said the primary reason for the delay is that DeJoy ordered that mail trucks leave on time, to the minute, rather than wait until all the day’s mail has been sorted. This means anything not sorted takes an extra day to arrive. It seems that canceling overtime and using fewer big sorting machines isn’t really causing the delay.

But this is just one day of delay, folks! It’s not a week or two. The mail is still getting through. All this stuff about lost mail is anecdotal. Much of it is probably due to slowdowns in mailrooms in businesses due to what’s going on in businesses because of the virus.

Remember, too, that all the television news shows are ALARMIST. They usually emphasize worst case scenarios because they keeps people watching through the next advertisement.

[mjkspear]

I was at the Election Office yesterday. They will time-stamp your ballot when you return it to them.

[JoelJohnson]

Vote in person , no one is so busy they need a mail in vote period . Voter fraud is real , and improperly filled out ballots are destroyed.

Please state your PROOF! It's been studied time and time again and it's been found that a VERY small number votes were fraudulent.

Yes, some ballots are thrown out because not being filled out properly (i.e. voting for 2 candidates or issues) most of the time the signatures don't match, they change over time, even day to day depending how important it is.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

My Mail person drives a US Post Office van, wears a US Post Office uniform with USPS ID and DISTRIBUTES mail at our Villages mail boxes....

Mine does as well.

They pick up the mail at the Lady Lake Post Office and deliver it to the boxes.

[Stu from NYC]

Oh and BTW don’t wear a mask, claim it’s your constitutional right, help “spread” the coronavirus and kill a few more good friends, just because you have Phil the Postman (disgruntled union postal worker who hates his job) tell you your vote won’t get delivered. Oh, he’s probably part of the “deep state” too! WTF?

Newman told me not to worry about the mail as most of it is in his garage.

[donfey]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

Show up in person and VOTE! It's AMERICA! Of all the "missing ballots" stories/reports I've heard over the years, the majority have involved the mail. Put that ballot in the ballot box, and exercise one of your most precious RIGHTS as a citizen.

[donfey]

Oh and BTW don’t wear a mask, claim it’s your constitutional right, help “spread” the coronavirus and kill a few more good friends, just because you have Phil the Postman (disgruntled union postal worker who hates his job) tell you your vote won’t get delivered. Oh, he’s probably part of the “deep state” too! WTF?

Nowhere does the OP suggest that you can't vote in person and still act in a responsible way. To suggest that the two are mutually exclusive is, well, dumb.

[Stu from NYC]

Please state your PROOF! It's been studied time and time again and it's been found that a VERY small number votes were fraudulent.

Yes, some ballots are thrown out because not being filled out properly (i.e. voting for 2 candidates or issues) most of the time the signatures don't match, they change over time, even day to day depending how important it is.

It is well known that in cities like Chicago lots of dead folk still find a way to vote. Some times after being a lifelong member of one party they suddenly decide to change to the other party.

Who would have thought.

[Carlsondm]

I agree. Mail between the states is slowing and there are many more mistakes. We still encourage grandchildren to write letters and send keepsakes and mail is our only contact with relatives at assisted living and nursing homes. Not everyone is on the internet.

Based on personal experiences, mail only if you have to and mail early. This reduces the stress on the existing mail system too. Many of the mail hubs have been forced to return to manual labor in the middle of a pandemic.

[stargirl]

Just watched an interesting video, a girl and her brother lived at the same address and requested mail in voting. She was a Republican and he was a Democrat. On the back of the return envelopes there was a “sort code”, all numbers and one letter. You guessed it, hers was an R and his was a D. So much for anonymous!

[lmack]

The original comment didn't come off politically charged to me, I understood the postal worker to be advising there are some issues with delivery right now. I can understand that, the post office is run by humans and some of those have compromised conditions that required them to stay home (even in jobs that require attendance to be performed). Distancing can be difficult in a post office therefore makes sense some mail services may have been effected. I get more mail than an average household as we have rental properties and also have some added complexity with forwarding mail once per year when we visit back to PA in the Summer. So, I can confirm, my mail has been slower and more lost pieces this season than prior Seasons. Regarding voting, we are voting in person as we did in the primary. They were handling the voting area very well with social distance rules etc.

[Singerlady]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

I’ll be dropping it off on person. Then very sure it got there!

[DeanFL]

You can hand deliver your vote to the Govt. Offices in Powell Road, Wildwood, just off 466a where your vote will be handed to the Officer in charge of receiving ballots. Also, I am informed that the various Rec Centers will have boxes for ballots where you can deposit your vote. Personally, I prefer to get mine into the Government Office in Powell Road.

.
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EXACTLY what I plan - have been doing a "VOTER REQUESTED" absentee ballot for years. In the past, mailed in. THIS YEAR I will definitely bring it to the County Office. Every vote counts - I sure want mine too - NO possible hanky-panky...
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[EviesGP]

I used to supervise postal services at my military installation. If our boxes are treated the same, USPS delivers our bulk mail to us, from there we(non USPS personnel) then sort it into distribution boxes. Hence, USPS responsibility ends with that drop off(i.e. considers it delivered). So, perhaps that's what people are referring to as contractors? Just the ones inside sorting?
As for USPS and their concerns, they're quite upset that their overtime has been removed. They counted on that, and used it to their advantage. So, they're just stoking the flames, hoping they can change the policy.
As for any hints of fraud, it's not the USPS, it's the ballot handlers and/or harvesters!
Here's to clicking your heels, and hoping to get thru 2020!

[merrymini]

There is a reason why the post office loses $8 billion a year. If you can, always vote in person. There is plenty of opportunity with the early voting in place.

[Bonnevie]

Vote in person , no one is so busy they need a mail in vote period . Voter fraud is real , and improperly filled out ballots are destroyed.

my problem with voting in person is that there is no back up to the computer. this is what Florida has: Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Systems: DRE systems employ computers that record votes directly into the computers' memory. These interfaces may incorporate touchscreens, dials, or mechanical buttons. The voter's choices are stored by the computer on a cartridge or hard drive.

Florida has DRE with no paper back up unlike other states. we know this happened in 2016: Russian hackers breached the systems of two county elections systems in Florida in 2016, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday at a news conference. DeSantis said no data were tampered with and vote tallies were not affected.

so I'm more concerned about interference. at least by voting by mail there will be a paper ballot to check if necessary.

[Leesburg]

I was looking for undelivered packages at the postal station. A woman was there in a USPS van and had a USPS shirt. She was unable to help or answer any questions, saying “he” wasn’t there and she hoped “he “ would come today.

[MDLNB]

IMO if you don't care enough about your vote to submit it in person, then you vote is not important. Even before this virus, whenever I voted the ONLY time I was near anyone was when I waited briefly in line with others. IF you going to vote in person now, you stand your distance, so problem solved.
Mail in voting is different from Absentee voting. There is no reason for mail in voting and it's just another excuse to object to the final election results by complaining about the count or vote tampering. IMO mail in voting is UN-Constitutional because the Constitution mandates that every voter be an American citizen. There is no proof of citizenship by mail in voting. As a matter of fact, there is no proof of citizenship without voter ID, therefore our elections are UN-Constitutional. The honor system is NOT proof of citizenship.

And if the subject of "mail in voting" is not political and violation of forum rules then please define what constitutes "political" material on here.

[MDLNB]

my problem with voting in person is that there is no back up to the computer. this is what Florida has: Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Systems: DRE systems employ computers that record votes directly into the computers' memory. These interfaces may incorporate touchscreens, dials, or mechanical buttons. The voter's choices are stored by the computer on a cartridge or hard drive.

Florida has DRE with no paper back up unlike other states. we know this happened in 2016: Russian hackers breached the systems of two county elections systems in Florida in 2016, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday at a news conference. DeSantis said no data were tampered with and vote tallies were not affected.

so I'm more concerned about interference. at least by voting by mail there will be a paper ballot to check if necessary.


EVERY time I have voted in Florida, I have voted in person and used a paper ballot at the polling station. Of course, I have always voted during the early voting cycle. My vote was signed and registered, and the machine counted the vote because I check the meter/counter on the machine when I submit my ballot.

[meridian5850]

First of all, I don't think anyone has a major issue with ABSENTEE voting where a voter requests a ballot, but DO have a major problem with states mass mailing ballots out to all registered voters regardless of whether they intend to vote or not. Big difference.

And second, if anyone doesn't think there is much voter fraud, then I'm just shaking my head. There was a story in a major east coast newspaper a week or so ago detailed by the person who did it in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania how it has been done for decades. He also trained others who then trained others how to do it. It was a large scale operation, run like the mafia he said.

Some of the ways it was done:

They had people in nursing homes "help" residents fill out their ballots.
They had postal employees who knew their route was in a particular voting demographic who would then just dump all the ballots and were willing to sacrifice some of "their" ballots knowing more of the other party's ballots wouldn't get counted.
They had people knocking on doors claiming to be from the election commission and that they would deliver the homeowners ballots to the precinct. Shockingly, many voters did this because - lazy. They would steam open the ballot envelope and substitute a new one marked for the preferred candidates and sealed back up. The signature card in the ballot envelope wasn't disturbed, so the ballot was then "guaranteed" authentic when it came time to tally it.
All the thousands of altered mail in ballots collected would then be put in mailboxes throughout the city/community so as not to raise suspicion.

He said it worked best in local elections where a few hundred votes could swing an election, but that it was also done in state and national elections as well. Don't forget, George W. Bush officially won Florida in 2000 by 537 votes.

So, yeah, voter fraud is a thing. And it's bigger than most people realize. It's just that the fraudsters have gotten so good at it over time that it is hard to detect, which is why one party always claims it isn't happening. And it's the party that almost always seems to benefit from it.

If a voter doesn't feel safe going to the polls, then be proactive and request an absentee ballot, fill it out and then drop it off at the appropriate location.

[PaulinTV]

It is well known that in cities like Chicago lots of dead folk still find a way to vote. Some times after being a lifelong member of one party they suddenly decide to change to the other party.

Who would have thought.

From Chicago (CBS) a snippet, full article link below:
"Those are just a few of the cases CBS 2 Investigators found by merging Chicago Board of Election voter histories with the death master file from the Social Security Administration.

In all, the analysis showed 119 dead people have voted a total of 229 times in Chicago in the last decade.

Jim Allen, a city election board spokesman, says a majority of those dead voters were most likely clerical errors, involving family members with the same names and addresses."

My opinion - I cannot think of any system in our country that services 331Million people that doesn't have a few flaws, errors, glitches in it. If we consider 229 times over a DECADE a lot, it sounds like someone is trying to create something where there is almost nothing.

Chicago Voters Cast Ballots From Beyond The Grave – CBS Chicago (https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/10/27/2-investigators-chicago-voters-cast-ballots-from-beyond-the-grave/)

[TooColdNJ]

I used to supervise postal services at my military installation. If our boxes are treated the same, USPS delivers our bulk mail to us, from there we(non USPS personnel) then sort it into distribution boxes. Hence, USPS responsibility ends with that drop off(i.e. considers it delivered). So, perhaps that's what people are referring to as contractors? Just the ones inside sorting?
As for USPS and their concerns, they're quite upset that their overtime has been removed. They counted on that, and used it to their advantage. So, they're just stoking the flames, hoping they can change the policy.
As for any hints of fraud, it's not the USPS, it's the ballot handlers and/or harvesters!
Here's to clicking your heels, and hoping to get thru 2020!

Heads-up to those who believe their mail is being delivered by the postal workers:
Some of the contracted employees wear T-shirts or regular shirts with USPS on them. Thats why it appears to some that they’re regular letter carriers. The aren’t wearing postal worker uniforms.

In addition, why would anyone making minimum wage want to destroy the mail, since, if caught, it’s a FEDERAL offense (time served in prisons with real hardened criminals) to do so? That’s a real risk not worth taking.

[Bob Galbraith]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.
You can also drop off your completed envelope at the Board of Elections Office on Powel Rd until 5:00pm on election day of the Bushnell office until 7:00pm.

[Rosie1950]

I will vote person, only reason being, over the years arthritis has settled in the joints of my fingers SO I can’t be sure my signature is the same as it was 13yrs ago.
To compare voting in primaries to general election is ludicrous. One would think only certain affiliates could vote. ALL registered voters go, not just party affiliates. I remember the first time I voted in Fl at Colony and the wait was hours and snaked inside the building. I was still working then so I didn’t have the luxury of going back and forth on different times. Now I do and if it’s too busy I’ll try another day.

[cassjax2]

We live in Marion County. Any idea where we can take our absentee ballots? I’m guessing Mulberyy Rec Center but just not sure.

[manaboutown]

Mail in voting is an invitation to fraud.

[MDLNB]

Mail in voting is an invitation to fraud.


Exactly!

[gsm1814]

I personally handed a card to a carrier...to this day my daughter never received it. I’ll go and vote in person!

[Curtisbwp]

The employees at the mail stations are not postal employees. They are outside contracters

[chet2020]

Five states have systems where most votes are cast by mail. Three blue states, a red state, and a back-and-forth state. You can monitor your ballot online from the date it is sent to you to the date they receive your completed ballot. They confirm whether your ballot was accepted, i.e. contained no errors that invalidate it, giving you time to resubmit or vote in person. Post-election, there are hard copies of the ballots available for auditing. The latter is why they have no problems with fraud.

[Aloha1]

Your mail comes from the Lady Lake facility where it is picked up by contract employees, driven to the neighborhood mailrooms and put in your mail box. If a contract employee does not show up or if there is an area with no current contract employee, a uniformed USPS employee delivers it.

When you drop outgoing mail in the slot at your postal station, it is taken to Lady Lake where it is processed and sent to the regional facility in Orlando. From there it goes out either to it's local destination or another regional facility for processing to the destination Post Office. So if you vote in Pine Hills, your mail goes to Lady lake, then Orlando, then back to Leesburg.

My vote is too important to me to risk it getting lost or delayed at any of those stops, so I will be voting in person. I believe it is our sacred duty to make sure we the citizens control the voting process and not the politicians or lawyers. Do your duty and get out and vote.

[Carole clausen]

I sent a priority package on June 30th to Minneapolis, it arrived on July 30th. Priority rates!

[MDLNB]

I sent a priority package on June 30th to Minneapolis, it arrived on July 30th. Priority rates!


Must be the reason they call it "snail mail." :boom:

[LianneMigiano]

IMO it will take till Xmas to count all the mail in votes. This will be the most SAFU election of all time.:boom:
Just read the other day that mail-in votes were the FIRST ONES COUNTED. That's how they get the first posted results. The rest come in from the various precincts as they are provided.

[jimjamuser]

IMO it will take till Xmas to count all the mail in votes. This will be the most SAFU election of all time.:boom:
My opinion is that it is MOST important to get the election results CORRECT. If it takes until Dec., then so be it! I can wait - just get it RIGHT.

[jimjamuser]

The first post is just a copy/paste from an internet meme. It is fabricated.

Meanwhile, back in reality, there are states still encouraging semi-isolation. There are still states that have towns still with mask mandates and strict enforcement of curfews and social distancing.

The US Postal Service serves ALL of those states. And in some of those states, there's a legitimate concern about gathering at the polls to vote. In November, in the north, it will be COLD. If you're social distancing - 6 feet apart, then no polling place will be able to accommodate every one who shows up to vote. Many will have to stand outside, some of them for hours.

And so - mail-in ballots are a thing. An important thing. A significantly important thing. What I see is people who live "in the bubble" once again not noticing that the rest of the world exists, and is not like the bubble. The bubble is not real. It's a facade. Even immediately outside the bubble, there are people getting sick and dying at higher rates than in some states that have stricter guidelines. Marion and Lake Counties in particular. Those residents of those counties - if they have any brains in their heads, will want to know what other way they can vote, besides gathering in a crowded polling place without social distancing, or being stuck outside with social distancing waiting to get in to vote. And it doesn't even get all that cold down here.

The rest of the world is experiencing a world of hurt, coming at it from every subject-matter that can affect the world. Some people in the bubble are paying close attention to it. Some are intentionally ignoring it. And some are sincerely oblivious because it doesn't occur to them that they probably should care.
True and GREAT last sentence!

[jimjamuser]

my problem with voting in person is that there is no back up to the computer. this is what Florida has: Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Systems: DRE systems employ computers that record votes directly into the computers' memory. These interfaces may incorporate touchscreens, dials, or mechanical buttons. The voter's choices are stored by the computer on a cartridge or hard drive.

Florida has DRE with no paper back up unlike other states. we know this happened in 2016: Russian hackers breached the systems of two county elections systems in Florida in 2016, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday at a news conference. DeSantis said no data were tampered with and vote tallies were not affected.

so I'm more concerned about interference. at least by voting by mail there will be a paper ballot to check if necessary.
I agree 100%. An accounting princple is ALWAYS have a paper back-up.

[joseppe]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

I wholly trust the Post Office. Every year I mail off my letter to Santa Claus, North Pole and he gets it year after year because everything on my list is under the tree. If you're really worried about your vote send it 'certified mail' with return receipt or better yet spend a little extra and try sending by 'registered mail'. Very secure.

[Astron]

Vote in person , no one is so busy they need a mail in vote period . Voter fraud is real , and improperly filled out ballots are destroyed.
Yes voting fraud has occurred, but it is incredibly rare and has had no real effect on modern elections. The Heritage Foundation, a very conservative think tank, data base found only 1298 proven cases of voter fraud. You are more likely to get struck by lightning while winning Both the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries than to see an election outcome successfully effected by voter fraud. This is not a real issue. Voter Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database | The Heritage Foundation (https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud)

[Sherry8bal]

I totally agree. I want to make sure my vote is counted!!

[meridian5850]

Five states have systems where most votes are cast by mail. Three blue states, a red state, and a back-and-forth state. You can monitor your ballot online from the date it is sent to you to the date they receive your completed ballot. They confirm whether your ballot was accepted, i.e. contained no errors that invalidate it, giving you time to resubmit or vote in person. Post-election, there are hard copies of the ballots available for auditing. The latter is why they have no problems with fraud.

OK, let's say I'm a die-hard union supporting postal worker and I've got a hundreds or thousands of ballots to deliver to wherever they are supposed to be delivered for tabulation, but first I drop them off at a campaign location. The workers there steam open the envelopes and replace the ballots with new ones marked for their candidate. When all the ballots are swapped out, they call me back to pick them up. I come get them and deliver to their final destination.

You monitor your ballot online and you see that it was accepted, except the ballot they received was marked for the candidates of the opposite party. And you think "good, my votes in." You have no reason to think anything nefarious happened.

The reason everyone says there is very little voter fraud is because it's not detectable because they've had years to perfect how it's being done.

[Ladygolfer93]

You can fill out your absentee ballot and drop it off at register of voters drop box.
There are no mail persons at the Villages mailbox they are contractors that pick up your mail in Lady Lake then distribute it to us, the lowest hanging fruit on the Postal Chain Gang.

EXACTLY ! Not at all surprised that professionalism is not practiced by all. Of course like the world at large, some are exceptional, some are adequate, and some really don't use discretion while on the job. ( I assume this mail person was not a personal friend and did not pass this "advice" in the privacy of a home and a purely social exchange). But the advice that IF you are convinced this is a possibility (as one person said recently, " fraud, are you kidding me ? Where I came from a "mail person" would sell you an entire pick up of ballots for less than $500 !". I have no idea if this kind of bribe would work or not, but, it's possible. Just drop off your absentee ballot if in doubt, easy solution !

[Ladygolfer93]

omissioFrom Chicago (CBS) a snippet, full article link below:
"Those are just a few of the cases CBS 2 Investigators found by merging Chicago Board of Election voter histories with the death master file from the Social Security Administration.

In all, the analysis showed 119 dead people have voted a total of 229 times in Chicago in the last decade.

Jim Allen, a city election board spokesman, says a majority of those dead voters were most likely clerical errors, involving family members with the same names and addresses."

My opinion - I cannot think of any system in our country that services 331Million people that doesn't have a few flaws, errors, glitches in it. If we consider 229 times over a DECADE a lot, it sounds like someone is trying to create something where there is almost nothing.

Chicago Voters Cast Ballots From Beyond The Grave – CBS Chicago (https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/10/27/2-investigators-chicago-voters-cast-ballots-from-beyond-the-grave/)

Those dead people in Chicago and other locations would have a tough time if they ever decide to purchase a Disney annual pass. I had to have my index finger scanned and every time I enter the park it's scanned. Heaven help the person who is NOT ME if they attempt to enter as me, and extend their finger for the I.D. ! ! Maybe we could do this for voting ? Once you bring all the proper documents initially when you register in person, and establish your ACTUAL status as a full U.S. citizen, your finger is scanned just like at Disney, and ........ but I suppose that is considered more intrusive than my Alexia Show ??? :):)

[Marshaw]

I assume you're referring to strictly absentee voting only. If you can take your mail and vote by car to a variety of different places to drop it off why can't you get your butt to a voting center if it's other than absentee.

[newgirl]

Put a stamp on it, first class will get there!

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Yes voting fraud has occurred, but it is incredibly rare and has had no real effect on modern elections. The Heritage Foundation, a very conservative think tank, data base found only 1298 proven cases of voter fraud. You are more likely to get struck by lightning while winning Both the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries than to see an election outcome successfully effected by voter fraud. This is not a real issue. Voter Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database | The Heritage Foundation (https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud)

And the issue that people "think" is an issue isn't even voter fraud. It's MAIL voter fraud, exclusively. Because they forget that there has been live-in-person voter fraud, including "misplaced" physical ballots, certain people from certain parties offering rides to the polls, only to ensure that those rides either go to the wrong place, or show up after the polls close (yes, that has happened), or are ordered to not give rides at all (that happened in 2016, it was in the news, captured live at the time it was happening).

Mail-in voter fraud is, in some random person's vernacular, a "nothingberder." It just isn't a thing. It's a conspiracy created by people who know their candidate doesn't stand a chance of winning if people who are unable to get to the polls on election day, are allowed to mail their votes in advance.

Who is most likely to not be able to get to the polls? Here's who:

Poor black, white, and latino people in rural areas of the south. Why? Because their polling places were shut down, and they are forced to travel to areas they don't know. Many of them don't have vehicles, and they don't have mass transit to just take them wherever they need to go. So they end up not voting at all. And - they represent a significant portion of those electoral areas that -might- flip, if those people actually were able to vote that day. Rather than take a chance that their person won't win the election, they just make it difficult to impossible for those voters to vote at all.

[twinklesweep]

If you don't have confidence in voting by mail, then go to the polls and vote. If you're comfortable with voting by mail or dropping off your ballot at a collection site, then vote in this fashion.

However, if you have your own reasons for not voting by mail AND you're adamant that no one should be allowed to vote by mail OR, like the OP, create thinly disguised issues to discourage voting by mail, well, then that's a whole different story....

[nn0wheremann]

Vote early, but don't vote often!

[MDLNB]

And the issue that people "think" is an issue isn't even voter fraud. It's MAIL voter fraud, exclusively. Because they forget that there has been live-in-person voter fraud, including "misplaced" physical ballots, certain people from certain parties offering rides to the polls, only to ensure that those rides either go to the wrong place, or show up after the polls close (yes, that has happened), or are ordered to not give rides at all (that happened in 2016, it was in the news, captured live at the time it was happening).

Mail-in voter fraud is, in some random person's vernacular, a "nothingberder." It just isn't a thing. It's a conspiracy created by people who know their candidate doesn't stand a chance of winning if people who are unable to get to the polls on election day, are allowed to mail their votes in advance.

Who is most likely to not be able to get to the polls? Here's who:

Poor black, white, and latino people in rural areas of the south. Why? Because their polling places were shut down, and they are forced to travel to areas they don't know. Many of them don't have vehicles, and they don't have mass transit to just take them wherever they need to go. So they end up not voting at all. And - they represent a significant portion of those electoral areas that -might- flip, if those people actually were able to vote that day. Rather than take a chance that their person won't win the election, they just make it difficult to impossible for those voters to vote at all.


Do you REALLY want someone that is too stupid, sorry ignorant to find a voting place to vote in an election? Sorry but I do not believe that folks that wish to vote would let finding the location to be a problem, just like I do not believe that they would be disenfranchised if required to produce a picture ID.

[mk1126]

Mail it in early - it will be fine;

[graciegirl]

A Villages mail carrier just shared this with me.

I have told many customers that if you care about your vote please do not put it through the mail. And that’s highly unfortunate to say but, I do see and hear about the issues the office is having with standard letters and bills. I strongly suggest voting in person, and spreading that word too to yourself friends and anyone who cares about their vote at all.

I have confidence that one of the seven I'm mailing will get through.:popcorn:

[oldtimes]

Put a stamp on it, first class will get there!

What about all of the mail that has been lost due to floods, fires, tornadoes and various other disasters? Not all mail gets delivered and it is not always because of fraud.

[CWGUY]

I have confidence that one of the seven I'm mailing will get through.:popcorn:

:confused: I thought you were from Ohio..... not Chicago! :1rotfl: