[blueash]

With the uncertainty of Covid and the possibility that it will still be an active problem for many months, now is the time for Florida to plan for how Covid might impact election days.
Wisconsin just had a nightmare election. Forced by the court to be held on a technicality they had locations refuse to be voting locations. If you ran a nursing home do you want voters there? They had so few of the volunteer poll workers show up, most being senior citizens that polling places were shut down.

Milwaukee normally has 180 voting locations. On Tuesday they had 5. Yes, just 5. All but one county had to use the National Guard in their locations as workers. Politician wearing a mask and PPE told voters “You are incredibly safe to go out.” to vote perhaps not understanding his visual message was a mismatch to his words.
Attempts to expand vote by mail were denied. There were multiple stories of counties bungling those vote by mail requests they did receive.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is one of thousands of residents in Wisconsin who requested but did not get an absentee ballot by Tuesday

It is entirely possible but not certain that people caught Covid voting in person or acting as poll workers. I know who I'd hold responsible for that.

So let's not have it happen in Florida. The primary election is August 18th. The general election is Nov 3rd. In recent years the number of days to early vote has been cut back meaning more people vote each of the remaining dates. Also the number of locations is limited.

Florida has no excuse required vote by mail. That's great. One would think it would be easy to, if needed, send a ballot to every voter to vote by mail. Oregon does this for every election.

A detailed article in the Miami Herald inspired this post. It reports that the Florida Supervisors of Elections representing every county in the state has written a letter to the Governor and the Sec of State asking for modifications in state requirements for the upcoming elections. The article mentions that after the recently completed Presidential primary on March 17th, two poll workers in Dade tested positive for Covid. The first positive test result in Dade county was March 12th.

I believe that the state should authorize and require each county to print and be prepared to mail a ballot to every registered voter whether or not they have requested a vote by mail. That those ballots should be able to be returned without requiring the voter pay for postage. If Covid is persisting or returning a trip to buy a stamp should not be needed to vote. Many people do not have stamps at home. And no one should be forced to pay to vote regardless.

Additionally the opportunity to vote early needs to be expanded both as to the number of dates and the locations. This will decrease exposure risks in the situation where Covid is diminished to the point we are no longer under stay at home, but there remains a risk of gathering in groups, especially indoor.

[tophcfa]

Not voting in person raises serious fraudulent voting concerns.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by blueash

With the uncertainty of Covid and the possibility that it will still be an active problem for many months, now is the time for Florida to plan for how Covid might impact election days.
Wisconsin just had a nightmare election. Forced by the court to be held on a technicality they had locations refuse to be voting locations. If you ran a nursing home do you want voters there? They had so few of the volunteer poll workers show up, most being senior citizens that polling places were shut down.

Milwaukee normally has 180 voting locations. On Tuesday they had 5. Yes, just 5. All but one county had to use the National Guard in their locations as workers.
Attempts to expand vote by mail were denied. There were multiple stories of counties bungling those vote by mail requests they did receive.


It is entirely possible but not certain that people caught Covid voting in person or acting as poll workers. I know who I'd hold responsible for that.

So let's not have it happen in Florida. The primary election is August 18th. The general election is Nov 3rd. In recent years the number of days to early vote has been cut back meaning more people vote each of the remaining dates. Also the number of locations is limited.

Florida has no excuse required vote by mail. That's great. One would think it would be easy to, if needed, send a ballot to every voter to vote by mail. Oregon does this for every election.

A detailed article in the Miami Herald inspired this post. It reports that the Florida Supervisors of Elections representing every county in the state has written a letter to the Governor and the Sec of State asking for modifications in state requirements for the upcoming elections. The article mentions that after the recently completed Presidential primary on March 17th, two poll workers in Dade tested positive for Covid. The first positive test result in Dade county was March 12th.

I believe that the state should authorize and require each county to print and be prepared to mail a ballot to every registered voter whether or not they have requested a vote by mail. That those ballots should be able to be returned without requiring the voter pay for postage. If Covid is persisting or returning a trip to buy a stamp should not be needed to vote. Many people do not have stamps at home. And no one should be forced to pay to vote regardless.

Additionally the opportunity to vote early needs to be expanded both as to the number of dates and the locations. This will decrease exposure risks in the situation where Covid is diminished to the point we are no longer under stay at home, but there remains a risk of gathering in groups, especially indoor.

Great----now we can have election fraud and those guilty don't even have to pay $0.49

[manaboutown]

Voting by mail invites tremendous voter fraud. Voter IDs need to be verified.

We would end up with a voter fraud pandemic on top of the Chinese virus pandemic. No thanks!

[billethkid]

You can bet there is planning going on in Washington....both parties.

If the national election (November) is an issue of any sort then we as a country is/will be dealing with a more serious pandemic than currently being viewed.

[DianeM]

I can support early voting but I will not support voting by mail. Voter ID is imperative and voting by mail affords too many opportunities for cheating. Great Aunt Tilley died in 1983 but dad gum she got out of her grave to vote. And not electronic voting either. Show up at a polling place or don’t vote with a few exceptions such as military or out of town.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by DianeM

I can support early voting but I will not support voting by mail. Voter ID is imperative and voting by mail affords too many opportunities for cheating. Great Aunt Tilley died in 1983 but dad gum she got out of her grave to vote. And not electronic voting either. Show up at a polling place or don’t vote with a few exceptions such as military or out of town.

Well "dad gum" I've been voting by mail in Florida for years. How come Florida hasn't shut it down if it is so prone to fraud? Please explain how "out of town" is allowable to you? Wouldn't all those millions of people who want to commit fraud just say they're out of town?

[blueash]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

Voting by mail invites tremendous voter fraud. Voter IDs need to be verified.

We would end up with a voter fraud pandemic on top of the Chinese virus pandemic. No thanks!

You know who votes by mail? Donald Trump. If it's good enough for him why isn't it good enough for the average person?

[DianeM]

Originally Posted by blueash

Well "dad gum" I've been voting by mail in Florida for years. How come Florida hasn't shut it down if it is so prone to fraud? Please explain how "out of town" is allowable to you? Wouldn't all those millions of people who want to commit fraud just say they're out of town?

Were you not around for the debacle over governor DeSantis election where ballots were “lost” to pad one side’s candidate. Not my problem if your lazy ass won’t go to a polling place. Voter ID or you don’t vote is truly the only way. People generally know far in advance if out of town and should be made to prove it before a mail in ballot is supplied.

[DianeM]

Originally Posted by blueash

You know who votes by mail? Donald Trump. If it's good enough for him why isn't it good enough for the average person?

Seriously? Because he lives in Florida but works his ass off every day in Washington.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by DianeM

I can support early voting but I will not support voting by mail. Voter ID is imperative and voting by mail affords too many opportunities for cheating. Great Aunt Tilley died in 1983 but dad gum she got out of her grave to vote. And not electronic voting either. Show up at a polling place or don’t vote with a few exceptions such as military or out of town.

You do know don't you that your mail in signature must match your on record signature for the ballot to be counted? Your signature is your matching ID. And Florida has used it for years.

[DianeM]

Originally Posted by blueash

You do know don't you that your mail in signature must match your on record signature for the ballot to be counted? Your signature is your matching ID. And Florida has used it for years.

Hmmm didn’t work so well in the governor election did it ?

[Marvic 1]

Originally Posted by blueash

I've been voting by mail in Florida for years. How come Florida hasn't shut it down if it is so prone to fraud?

A lot of people in Florida are voting with mail in ballots for those who have out of state address, including our President who now resides in Washington DC but real address is in Florida...
Mail in voting for everyone has been pushed by the Left-Wing for many years not just this election year because of Coronavirus.
Judicial Watch found that their were over 1,000,000 fraud mail in votes just in California alone..

[blueash]

I made a mistake. It happens. I only mentioned Oregon has having elections by mail. I failed to include
Washington state, Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii do the same. All by mail.
California does it in some counties including LA county
1/2 the counties of North Dakota are vote by mail

I am aware that one political party screams a lot about fraud. And there certainly is a potential for someone to hijack an envelope and fill in the form for the legitimate voter, then either forge a signature or compel the voter to sign the outside. Evidence please?

I only know of one example of significant potential fraud. It was in 2018 in North Carolina where operatives of the GOP did exactly that and an entire election was thrown out by the court.

The argument of potential fraud is important. The evidence of it being a problem is almost nil. In 2016, the last POTUS election, about 25% of all votes cast were by mail. Please find me reports of fraudulent mail in ballots. I don't deny it may happen. What I deny is that is must be happening and that mail in voting is inherently dangerous to democracy. All those states would disagree. They include states run by the GOP.

So all you nay-sayers.. you'd rather risk lots of exposure to Covid and a new major outbreak with a new economic shut down instead of planning an alternative approach to conducting our elections IF Covid is an ongoing problem in August and November?


Apparently Florida's county election supervisors most of whom are GOP also believe something needs to be planned. If you out of hand reject mail in ballots, and I trust none of you vote by mail, what if anything should the state be doing now to plan for the possibility of having Covid still here at the next election period?

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

Voting by mail invites tremendous voter fraud. Voter IDs need to be verified.

We would end up with a voter fraud pandemic on top of the Chinese virus pandemic. No thanks!

That is political propaganda horsepucky. There are many states that provide mail-in ballots (including Florida), with very little actual fraud going on. The percentage of actual fraud (as opposed to assumed, alleged, accused, or supposed) is not even statistically significant.

With the singular exception of manipulation in North Carolina, during a single election, this just flat out isn't a "thing."

The only people who are fighting against it, are people who have a lot to lose if ALL citizens have better access to casting a vote. They are against it because they are afraid that if more people vote - more people will vote against them. And they would probably be correct.

But it's fear that keeps the votes out of peoples' hands, not fraud.