Following up on an earlier piece, the Daily Post is reporting that some correctly completed ballots have been returned to sender by the postal service. The assistant assessor-county clerk thinks it may be human error at the post office since the voter's address is visible on the back of the envelop. The piece highlights the B'game city council race of 2013 saying "just 10 votes separated two candidates from a spot on the council", but we know it was really nine votes. The point is valid though and so is the comment from one citizen who got the ballot back and said "she regularly travels for business and could have easily overlooked the fact that her ballot had been returned to her."
My advice is to keep your eyes open for these boomerang ballots and drop it at City Hall.
The county does provide the ability to see if they have received your ballot back by going to https://www.shapethefuture.org/MyElectionMaterials/ I'm not sure what the turn around time is on noting they have it since I mailed mine about a week ago and they don't show it as received yet.
Yeah, perhaps the postal workers are checking the east to obtain voter registration records and "losing" or sending back the ballots that likely don't support their causes.
If the government is involved, count on them to screw it up. Why? Due to lack of accountability.
How can we hold them more accountable to their official duties? Vote in people willing to debate the issues with candor and skill. And, vote in people who are willing to keep government limited in its scope and powers.
Posted by: candor and skill | October 19, 2015 at 11:01 AM
Postal accountability. Good plan, Alex.
Posted by: hillsider | October 19, 2015 at 11:49 PM
"easy to obtain voter records", rather.
Fedex is holding them accountable. Funny how free markets do that.
So, I know this guy that's annointed by the labor power in the area to run one of the private companies with a huge gov't contract.
Very nice guy, but he once told me that his car was full of most of the local votes. I couldn't help but wonder why this election volunteer was handling all of the votes like that vs. an employee of the county elections office who perhaps might have had more duty and accountability (oops, there's that word again) to not tamper with the votes.
Hmmm, will we ever achieve transparent democracy, or will we just slip backwards to gov't fascism yet again, as they did in Europe? Some people really believe that society is better off being dictated to by the gov't.
Posted by: How can reason overcome that?! | October 20, 2015 at 10:50 AM
Now your got me thinking.I saw Marge O B N with a stack of mail goin in the PO with a stack of envelopes
Posted by: Sir Paul | October 20, 2015 at 04:11 PM
Folks, I think Jerry Brown & Co has implanted moles as Federal Postal workers to make sure that the right puppets are picked in every locality, ya know what I mean?
Seriously, guys think about it, do you think the average postal worker in the Burlingame post offices look like they're gung-ho about influencing an election, or really anything for that matter. Look, the couple of times I couldn't get my secretary to pick up a package, I had the joy of doing this myself and I gotta tell ya, some of these workers took 5 minutes to sell a book of stamps and then close their window to put up the next window sign. I swear that happened about 3 times while I was in line. These workers have major motivation issues and in some ways I don't blame them. I just find it hard to believe that these guys could engineer any sort of election conspiracy let alone know or care who is in this election, even assuming they even live in Burlingame.
The bigger issue, as Bruce Dickinson sees it is that politicians engineer these types of "vote by mail" schemes to help protect incumbency. Research has shown that it reduces voter participation and the people who care the most are probably those who cared the most in the last election, and so on, so the same candidates get voted in.
There's a lot of stuff on this matter and it's too bad, as in some cases you do want to wait until the last minute in case some new information comes out about a candidate, especially given the somewhat slimy nature of local politics, where the paws have more grease than what is found in every joint and suspension component on my entire car collection, ya know what I mean?
Bruce Dickinson wants the live election option, period. You just have to consolidate polling places, it's not like you can't find a central location in Burlingame to do all this. Hell, I may even sign up as an election volunteer and mingle with my fellow senior citizens, which would be fun. But remember, I don't do International House of Pancakes, under any circumstances!
Posted by: Bruce Dickinson | October 21, 2015 at 05:38 PM
Voting by USPS, Internet, regular voting booth should be the "law of the land."
That way every single person, no matter their religious, financial, education, race, criminal history-that should not count for anything except the purchase of a firearm, physical or mental handicaps, age, obviously being a US or CA citizen does not matter either-re: State of CA Driver License-Car Insurance-optional...
Proposition 13..
Considering all these facts..
Why not vote for Trump?
Mr. Bruce Dickenson has "his finger on the pulse of Burlingame," more than any candidate or journalist.
Mr. Dickenson is the only qualified "non candidate" that should be running for an Elder position.
Posted by: [email protected] | October 21, 2015 at 06:13 PM
Here is another wrinkle to the all-mail ballot--and unintended consequence if you will. I think this one will be workable but might have been best to work out first.
Visually impaired and blind residents filed a lawsuit naming San Mateo County officials alleging the most recent all-mail ballot election blocked their ability to fulfill their civic duty.
Attorneys representing the California Council of the Blind sued the county in federal court claiming at least two local residents were unable to participate in the last election due to fears their security would be compromised while voting.
Lynda Johnson, a blind Menlo Park resident named in the lawsuit, said she did not vote in the most recent all-mail election because no alternative was provided to paper ballots, which she needed assistance to fill out.
She said she feels it is her right to be able to vote in private, but she needed another person to help her fill out the absentee ballot due to her disability, which discouraged her from participating.
“If you are having an all-mail ballot that would mean it’s paper, that would mean then I would have to have someone read that paper to me, then I would have to rely on that person to mark down my answers, and that would mean my sense of privacy is no longer private,” she said.
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2015-12-21/lawsuit-blind-suffered-election-discrimination-officials-claim-county-committed-to-addressing-privacy-issue/1776425155492.html
Posted by: Joe | December 21, 2015 at 03:06 PM
Braille Ballots with chads sent to those voters registered as blind.
Posted by: pat giorni | December 22, 2015 at 05:29 PM