Swing State Project

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Sunday, September 12, 2004

Absentee Balloting Open to Fraud

As if electronic voting machines with questionable security systems & no voter-verifiable paper trails weren't enough to worry about, the New York Times offers this survey of the absentee ballot laws in the swing states. The majority of these battleground states have very lax laws (such as not requiring authenticating witness signatures) which could leave absentee balloting open to serious fraud. Seven swing states even allow political parties to gather completed ballots. Yikes.

And it's not a minor concern, either: As many as one in four voters may vote absentee this year, as a result of numerous state laws which don't require any excuse in order to obtain an absentee ballot. I think these kind of laws are a bad thing. I'm voting absentee this year, but only because I have to. I'd much prefer to actually visit my polling place. Voting is one of the few civic exercises left to us (apart from jury duty) where every type of person from every conceivable background comes together to all do the same thing. I think these sorts of activities are good for a nation's soul, and it saddens me to see this particular one get diminished.

Posted at 11:10 PM in General | Technorati