Vote-by-mail ballots could mean long waits on tight races
Touch Screen flips votes in Pennsylvania (and Colorado)
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Steve Benen reports, Life Imitates Art – Voting Machine Edition:
Four years ago, "The Simpsons" put together a short clip in which Homer wanted to vote in the presidential election. He stands in front of the electronic voting machine, pushes the button for Barack Obama, and the machine immediately registers a vote for John McCain. Homer keeps pushing the screen for Obama, and the machine keeps lighting up for McCain.
When this happens in real life, it's a lot less funny. (Video below the fold).
NBC News has confirmed that a Pennsylvania voter recorded this video today, using a voting machine's touch screen to vote for Obama/Biden, though the machine automatically interprets this as a vote for Romney/Ryan. Just like Homer Simpson, this Pennsylvania voter keeps saying he wants to support Obama, and the machine keeps saying otherwise.
The machine in question was reportedly taken out of service once the voter brought it to the attention of elections officials.
Pennsylvania Judge stops Republicans from demanding photo ID
True the Vote poll observers barred from Columbus, Ohio polling sites
PSA: Don’t take photos of your secret ballot and post it to social media
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
While it is not per se unlawful to take a photo of your completed ballot in Arizona and post it to social media, this may be subject to legal interpretation under A.R.S. §16-1018. Additional unlawful acts by persons with respect to voting; classification:
A person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor:
: :
4. Shows the voter's ballot or the machine on which the voter has voted to any person after it is prepared for voting in such a manner as to reveal the contents, except to an authorized person lawfully assisting the voter.
5. Knowingly solicits a voter to show the voter's ballot, or receives from a voter a ballot prepared for voting, unless the person is an election official or unless otherwise authorized by law.
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8. Except for a completed ballot transmitted by an elector by fax or other electronic format pursuant to section 16-543, knowingly places a mark on the voter's ballot by which it can be identified as the one voted by the voter.
Pro Publica has posted this warning. Why It May Be Illegal to Instagram Your Ballot:
Proud voters are already posting photos of their ballots on Instagram—sometimes with the names of their chosen candidates filled in. But before you snap a shot of your vote, you might want to check your state laws. As the Citizen Media Law Project points out as part of their guide to documenting the 2012 election, showing your marked ballot to other people is actually illegal in many states.
Laws against displaying your ballot are motivated by concerns about vote buying, since voters being bribed might need to be prove they voted a certain way.
While laws vary from state to state, the penalties for showing your ballot can be stiff.
* * *
“Virtually all of these laws are older laws that predate the current technology,” said Jeffrey Hermes, a First Amendment expert who wrote the Citizen Media Law Project’s guide to ballot disclosure rules.
But, he warned in his guide, “It is easy to imagine situations in which the thoughtless posting of a marked ballot on Facebook could result in negative consequences.”
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine, said that taking a picture of your marked ballot is “bad news.”
“Hard as it is to believe, before the secret ballot there was a lot more vote buying and we don't want more of that now,” he wrote in an email.
* * *
Allowing voters to publicly display their ballots might also undermine the culture of the secret ballot, Hermes said. Another factor is the fear that voters might be intimated or swayed by seeing other people’s ballots.
* * *
At least one state has recently changed its stance on the issue, Hermes said. Maine repealed its ban on voters showing their own ballots in 2011.
It's better to be safe than sorry — just don't do it.
On Buckmaster Show at 12:30
Sigh
